Police launch investigation after box full of spray painted mice thrown into McDonald's by Palestine protesters

A box of mice was reportedly thrown into the fast food chain's Birmingham Star City restaurant by protestors who were shouting "free Palestine".

A video titled 'enjoy your rat burgers' was put on social media and West Midlands Police has confirmed officers are now investigating following the incident in Nechells at around 5.30pm yesterday.

It is being treated as a public nuisance offence and anyone with information is being urged to come forward.

Three boxes of red, white and green spray-painted mice were seen being loaded into the back of a car by a man.

It is believed the person can then be seen walking up to the restaurant before the mice are thrown onto the floor and shouts can be heard of "Free Palestine"

Customers reacted by screaming and workers at the branch were seen trying to divert the mice out of the restaurant in a subsequent video.

Pro-Palestinian protests have broken out across the globe after Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel on October 7.

Tensions between pro-Palestinians and British Jews remain high due to the conflict in Gaza.

A spokesperson for McDonald's said: “We are aware of an incident in our Birmingham Star City restaurant last night.

"The restaurant has been fully sanitised and our pest control partners have been called out to conduct a full inspection.”

A West Midlands Police spokesman said: "We're investigating after live rodents were thrown into a restaurant off Watson Road, Nechells, at around 5.30pm yesterday.

"We understand the distress this will have caused and it's not acceptable in any circumstances.

"This is currently being treated as a public nuisance offence and we've active lines of enquiries to identify, and then arrest, who was involved.

"Anyone with information is asked to contact us via live chat on our website, or by calling 101, and quote log 3847 of 30/10/23."