A pack of Russian black squirrels is reported to have piled into a dog mob-handed, bitten it to death and then eviscerated the unfortunate animal after it ill-advisedly barked at them, the BBC reports.

That, at least, is according to journo Anastasia Trubitsina who told Komsomolskaya Pravda: "They literally gutted the dog," before adding that the canicidal tree rats scattered when they caught sight of some people. Chillingly, according to the three witnesses to the outrage, some were "carrying bits of flesh".

Locals in the town of Lazo attribute the savagery to a lack of pine cones. One said: "The little beasts are agitated because they have nothing to eat."

Scientists are unconvinced. Mikhail Tiyunov dismissed the claim as "absurd", with: "If it really happened, things must be pretty bad in our forests."