A giant rat nearly the size of a 4-year-old child has reportedly been found in East London, although some skeptics are critical of the story. The giant rodent was supposedly found near a children's playground in Britain's capital city.

Tony Smith, a 46-year-old gas engineer, first reported seeing the massive rat in near a block of apartments. He supposedly found the deceased body of the rat laying next to a bush in the children's play area. The man claims the rat weighed an astonishing 24 pounds.

Some viewers on social media claimed a photo taken of the rat being held by Smith's friend James Green is deceiving. Some say the surprising apparent size of the rodent is the result of forced perspective, which makes the animal look larger than normal. One skeptic claims to have measured the size of the rodent, finding it to measure just 2 feet long, half the length claimed by Smith.

Brown rats that live underneath the streets of London are typically about 10 inches in length. But by placing the rat nearer the camera, it is possible to make the rodent look larger than it is in real life. The same effect of forced perspective is used when tourists in Italy were photographed to look like as if they are keeping the Leaning Tower of Pisa from falling to the ground.

"No way a brown rat would be that big, or that anyone could pick up a rat of 11 kg (24 pounds) with a litter picker. There are several hoaxes showing rats like this online or previously published in newspapers. Even a Gambian pouched rat, which is 3 ft long, only weighs around 1.5 kg (3 pounds)," said Jane Hurst of the Institute of Integrative Biology at the University of Liverpool.

Brown rats tend to keep to themselves, shying away from people. However, the men who say they discovered the giant rodent say trash bins accompanying nearby apartments are often left open, providing wild animals there with a plentiful source of food.

While some people claim the giant rat seen in the photograph is the result of an optical illusion, pest control company Rentokil theorizes the animal may be a freak of evolution.

The debate rages on, as people take one side or another in the case of the mysterious giant rat.