STOMACH-churning snaps reveal inside an Indian market where rat meat is more popular than chicken or pork.

Freshly-caught rodents are at the top of the menu in Kumarikata in the north-eastern state of Assam.

Shoppers flock to the village’s market to snap up hundreds of the creatures caught in nearby fields.

Rat numbers have boomed in the state, where they are a pest, feasting on farmers’ crops.

But locals have now discovered they can sell the meat from any they manage to trap after demand skyrocketed, Arab News reports.

Dozens of the dead creatures are seen piled high in images that will horrify readers with a phobia.

Some of the carcasses have been boiled, gutted and skinned, while others appear to have been pulled fresh from farmers’ traps.

Kumarikata locals keen on the delicacy then take them home and cook them in a spicy gravy.

The ready-roasted kind is also popular.

Two pounds of rat meat now sells for about 200 rupees (£2.25) – the same as for chicken and pork.

And the trade has now become an important source of income for poor agricultural workers.

In the tea-picking off season, the Adivasi tribal people go to rice paddies to trap rats for the market.

The rodents are hunted at night during the harvesting season with traps made from bamboo.

The traps are placed at the entrance of the rat-holes in the evening and the rodents are caught as they come out to scavenge.

The vendors have to work at night to make sure other predators do not get to the dead rats first.

Some of the rats weigh more than two pounds each and the market traders say they get between 20 and 40 pounds every night.