Concerns are raised about squirrels

The Southsea woman contacted The News after seeing a story in the Daily Mail which told of a three-year-old boy being bitten by squirrels.

The 59-year-old woman, who lives in The Lane and did not want to be named, is concerned that people are feeding squirrels peanut shells.

She said: ‘There’s now four or six squirrels causing a nuisance.

‘They leave their shells everywhere and they are digging up people’s pots.’

The woman said she had told people to stop feeding the squirrels.

And she said she was worried that children could be attacked as there is a school playing field nearby.

However, experts say that squirrel attacks are extremely rare and they are not normally aggressive.

The advice is to treat the rodents as any other wild animal and keep them at a distance.