A chicken restaurant was forced shut when an appalled customer recorded a trio of rats freely walking around its kitchen and scurrying all over the utensils used to prepare the food.

The customer noticed the rodents crawling over a metal tray at a Zhengxin Fried Chicken shop in Zhangjiajie, in Hunan Province, southern China, on November 8.

Phone footage shows the rats roaming around the kitchen with no staff members to be seen around. The customer, who had seemingly hoped to get a meal, walked off hungry and disgusted.

The clip soon reached the local Market Supervision Bureau which claimed that they had sent inspectors to the eaterie and immediately shut it down for business.

An investigation has been launched to determine if this was an isolated incident and there are any other sanitary hazards present.

The bureau said in a statement: 'On November 8, 2023, at 10:40 am, our bureau received reports about a situation where a netizen reported the presence of rats in the food preparing area of a fried chicken shop in Yongding District.

'Our bureau will take this incident as a warning, swiftly conduct a comprehensive inspection and rectification throughout the entire district, promptly eliminate potential food safety risks, and enhance the enforcement efforts of food safety regulations.

'We will comprehensively reinforce the food safety responsibilities of all food production and operation units in the district, ensuring food safety to the fullest extent. 'We appreciate the supervision and support from all sectors of society regarding our district's food safety efforts.'