About a dozen rats were seen scampering around the eating area of a Kentucky Fried Chicken and Taco Bell restaurant in New York City's Greenwich Village neighborhood Friday, according to the Associated Press.
Onlookers began to amass outside the restaurant's windows after a television crew began filming the rat onslaught. Inspectors from the city's Department of Health began arriving at the restaurant later in the day and posted a sign reading "CLOSED" on the front door. The restaurant had not opened for the day when the TV crew first arrived, the AP reported.
Yum Brands, Inc., who owns Taco Bell and Kentucky Fried Chicken, released a statement later in the day which claimed that construction in the basement of the building which houses the restaurant during the day before the incident caused the rats to emerge, according to the AP.
Friday's incident came just months after Taco Bell was involved in an E. Coli scare in which more than 70 East Coast cutomers became ill. Federal officials linked the outbreak to a lettuce supplier the company was using at the time, the AP reported.
