'Sniffer rats' join Dutch police force
One of the rats, Derrick, is 98.8 per cent accurate in all cases. (stock photo)
An elite group of rats named after well-known fictional detectives have been trained to sniff out drugs and gunpowder - with around 95 per cent accuracy.
Dutch police are training the sniffer rats in order to help save money, ABC reports. Gunshots leave behind a residue that until now could only be detected in a laboratory - a far more costly process that can take at least two hours.
Rat trainer Monique Hamerslag told ABC: "Rats can do the same thing in seconds."
The formidable five have been named Magnum, Poirot, Derrick (after a the protagonist of a popular German TV show) and Thompson and Thompson (from The Adventures of Tin Tin).
They are being trained in Rotterdam and Derrick is said to be unbeatable - achieving accuracy of 98.8 per cent in all cases.
Hamerslag told ABC the rats will soon be sufficiently skilled to use in criminal investigations.
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