Only a couple weeks left until 2016 is over and we have ourselves a late contender for the most horrific story of the year.

Featured Image VIA

A three-month-old baby girl has been eaten alive by giant rats after her 26-year-old mum left her home alone to go partying with her friends in Johannesburg, South Africa.

The child was “devoured” by the rats as she lay in bed. Her mum returned home to discover the horrific scene in the township area of Katlehong.

Luckily, the girl’s twin brother (aptly named Lucky) was spared a similar fate as mum decided to take him with her on her drinking binge.

Image VIA

Describing the NSFL scene, a neighbour said:

The baby could only have died a painful death. The infant’s tongue, eyes and fingers had all been eaten.

Besides the missing body parts, the remains of her body had bites and wounds all over that were inflicted by the sharp teeth of the rats. This woman must rot in jail.

She does not deserve to be a mother.

Another said:

The only thing this woman likes is going out partying in the local shebeens.

I just could not bring myself to go in and see what happened to this poor child.

She has been a tenant since the beginning of the year and her twins were both in hospital last week but we do not know why they had been taken to hospital.

Others said it wasn’t the first time she had left the twins on their own but it was the first time she had left only one child.

Here’s a look at the rats, in case you thought we were kidding about the “giant” part:

Images VIA

So that’s a nice, uplifting story to close the year with eh? A small child being eaten alive by giant rats while her mum’s out getting pissed at the bars. Jesus.

For giant rats who actually make themselves useful, get a load of this crew sniffing out bombs in Mozambique.