Rats biting children at school: what the Littré school case (Paris 6th) reveals in July 2026

On Tuesday 30 June 2026, late in the afternoon, two children from the Littré nursery school (6th arrondissement of Paris) were playing in the school's "oasis" playground — a green space covered with wood chips designed to cool the yard during heatwaves. A few minutes later, they came out bitten by several rats. One went home the next day, the other had to be operated on his finger at the hospital. The account, reported by Le Parisien on 3 July 2026, has been picked up by French newsrooms nationwide — and raises a question that many local authorities would rather not face: are our schools still safe from rodents in summer? Three days earlier, a 6-year-old had been bitten at the Anne-Sylvestre school in Rouen; in May, a class at the Cytises school in Magnanville (Yvelines) was forced to close because of an infestation. The July 2026 heatwave did not create the problem — it made it visible.

What happened at the Littré school

According to Le Parisien's investigation published on 3 July 2026:

• Date: Tuesday 30 June 2026, late afternoon.
• Location: Littré nursery school, rue Littré, 6th arrondissement of Paris.
• Victims: two children from the youngest class, bitten by "several rats" while playing in the "oasis" playground covered with wood chips.
• Outcome: one child returned to class the next day; the second had to undergo surgery on his finger.
• Probable cause: a worksite connecting the school to the urban heating network (CPCU) that has been running for five months in the street, which is thought to have disturbed the sewage galleries and driven the rodents up to the surface.
• Immediate measures: the playground was closed for three days; an emergency deratisation was ordered by the 6th arrondissement town hall.
• Political reaction: the LR mayor of the 6th, Jean-Pierre Lecoq, raised the possibility of removing the wood chips when school resumes in September.

"I would like to know if there is a danger" — the headline chosen by Le Parisien to report a parent's incomprehension.

The incident is not an isolated case. Three weeks earlier, a 6-year-old was bitten at the Anne-Sylvestre school in Rouen (hand or arm, according to witnesses), and in May 2026, the Cytises school in Magnanville (Yvelines, 78) had to close a class after a rat was discovered in the premises. The common thread in these three cases: a road worksite nearby, a persistent heatwave, and an old building with poorly sealed technical ducts.

Brown rat close-up, illustrating the species that thrives in urban sewage networks

Why rats bite: a rare behaviour on the surface

For a long time, rats were considered to flee from humans. This is still true for a healthy wild rat in an environment where food is abundant. But several factors can turn a fearful rat into a biting rat, and the combination of these factors in July 2026 is present in most major French cities.

1. The heatwave and water stress

An adult brown rat (Rattus norvegicus) drinks between 15 and 30 ml of water per day. When temperatures exceed 35 °C for several days in a row — as is the case across the northern half of France since 11 July 2026 — the usual water sources (sewers, manholes, air-conditioning condensate) dry up or become hostile. The rats then move closer to domestic water points: yard taps, moistened sandboxes, automatic sprinklers in school green spaces. A school playground in mid-summer is a permanent water source, open 24/7, with no night-time surveillance.

2. The scarcity of wild food

Drought episodes reduce the seeds, fallen fruit and insects that rats feed on. They turn to bins, pet bowls and — crucially — food scraps left behind by children in the playgrounds (packaging, compotes, biscuits). A forgotten biscuit in the wood chips can sustain an entire colony for a week.

3. Disturbance of burrows by worksites

This is the trigger factor in the Littré case. Road works (CPCU connection, sewer works, pavement restoration) move tonnes of earth and break the rat burrows, which can be up to 50 cm in diameter. Deprived of shelter, the rodents come up to the surface through technical ducts, gullies, broken pipes and holes left open in the walls of neighbouring buildings. A school playground is an open space, with no underground mesh, and therefore an ideal entry point.

4. Poor sealing of school buildings

Parisian schools built at the beginning of the 20th century — as is the case on rue Littré — were built with unsealed cast-iron technical ducts, cellar vents with widely spaced bars and pipe passages often not sealed after successive renovations. An adult rat can squeeze through a hole 2 cm in diameter; a young rat, through a hole of 1 cm. The Littré school, like thousands of establishments in France, has a built heritage porous to rodents.

"It was in the 'oasis' playground, in the middle of the wood chips, that the children were bitten." — Le Parisien, 3 July 2026.

Not an isolated case: Rouen, Magnanville, and the Paris region on alert

Three recent news items draw a national map of school infestation in summer 2026:

| Date | Location | Circumstances | Source | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 30 June 2026 | Littré school, Paris 6th | Two children bitten, playground closed 3 days, emergency deratisation | Le Parisien, 3 July 2026 | | 19 June 2026 | Anne-Sylvestre school, Rouen | 6-year-old bitten on hand/arm, parents alerted | Local Normandy press | | May 2026 | Cytises school, Magnanville (78) | Class closure after a rat was found in the premises | Magnanville town hall | | 25 May 2026 | Charenton-le-Pont (94) | "Punch operation" against rats in the town centre involving the town hall, the Paris Est Marne & Bois area and the department | Le Parisien, 25 May 2026 |

In Paris, several schools in the central arrondissements (3rd, 10th, 11th, 18th) reported repeated rat sightings in playgrounds, cellars and bin rooms during June 2026. The Regional Health Agency (ARS) of the Paris region placed the eight Île-de-France departments on orange heatwave alert on 7 July 2026, then on red alert from 11 to 14 July — conditions that mechanically worsen the rodent risk.

For the City of Paris, the stakes go beyond health. The Littré incident comes as the City is funding 10,000 private housing renovations in 2026 against 1,500 in 2024 (Boursorama, 2 July 2026) and as thermal renovations in co-owned buildings are being blocked by some owners. The more thermally degraded a building is, the more cavities and sealing defects it offers to rats.

Emergency action: the ProDeratisation protocol for schools

When a rat is seen in a school, college, lycée or leisure centre, the 24-hour response is non-negotiable. Our method, applied for five years in school establishments across the Paris region (nurseries, primary schools, middle schools, high schools, holiday camps):

1. Phone diagnostic within 2 hours: qualifying the urgency (sighting, bite, burrow, droppings), identifying potential entry points, identifying the context (worksite, bin, food source).
2. Physical inspection within 24 hours by a Certibiocide technician: checking cellars, technical ducts, vents, bin rooms, playground gullies, green spaces, water points.
3. Curative deratisation using secure bait stations (locked boxes, inaccessible to children and pets) and mechanical traps. Second-generation anticoagulant rodenticides are used at lethal doses, in locked stations.
4. Sealing of entry points: steel-expanding foam, 6 mm stainless steel mesh, quick-set cement. A rat must no longer be able to get in.
5. Removal of wood chips or any loose material in contact with the ground over a depth of 10 cm, within a 5-metre radius of the sighting area. This is the most effective measure to prevent return.
6. Monitoring for 30 days: weekly visit, bait replacement, check for reappearance, written report sent to the headteacher and the town hall.

Average cost observed in 2026 for a nursery school with 3 to 5 classes: between €250 and €600 for a curative operation, and between €80 and €150 per month for an annual prevention contract. These costs are eligible for the school fund, local authority credits, or property damage insurance contracts of the town halls.

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The legal framework: what the law says

Several texts govern the fight against rats in establishments open to the public (ERP) and in schools:

• Public Health Code: Articles L.1311-1 and L.1311-2 require ERP owners and operators to maintain cleanliness of the premises. A documented rat infestation is grounds for an official order from the prefect or mayor.
• Departmental Health Regulation (RSD) of Paris, articles 119 and 121: obligation to carry out regular deratisation of bin rooms, cellars and common areas. Article 121 specifies that "owners of buildings or their representatives must take all necessary measures to prevent the introduction and proliferation of rodents".
• Decree of 9 August 1978 relating to type R ERP (educational establishments): prohibition of any presence of harmful animals in premises accessible to children.
• Education Code, Article L.521-4: the municipality is responsible for public schools and their hygiene. The town hall is therefore legally liable in the event of a documented infestation.
• Decree No. 2025-237 and its implementing decree of 29 December 2025: national pest control plan, including the brown rat, endowed with €3 million per year for municipal interventions.

For a detailed reading of the obligations of property managers and landlords in buildings, you can read our dedicated article on the legal obligations of deratisation in co-ownership and our guide on how to react to a building infestation.

Prevention: six measures to put in place before the new school year

For a school, leisure centre or educational establishment that wants to avoid a summer 2027 identical to 2026, six concrete measures can be taken as soon as the end of summer:

1. Audit of entry points by a Certibiocide professional: examination of all technical ducts, vents, manholes, floor drains, pipe passages. A report with photos is given to the town hall and the headteacher.
2. Systematic sealing of holes larger than 1 cm: expanding foam, stainless steel mesh, cement. This intervention, billed between €150 and €400 for a school, is the best value-for-money prevention measure.
3. Removal of wood chips in school playgrounds and replacement with a washable surface (paving slabs, synthetic turf, stabilised sand). This is the measure recommended by the mayor of the 6th following the Littré affair.
4. Rigorous waste management: closed containers, daily collection in summer, monthly cleaning of the premises. Bring-bank containers must be located more than 10 metres from school buildings.
5. Annual prevention contract with a Certibiocide company: quarterly visits, bait replacement, diagnostic update, report sent to the town hall. Cost: €80 to €150 per month for a school.
6. Awareness raising for children and staff: do not leave anything lying around in the playground, report any sighting immediately to the headteacher, do not feed birds or pigeons nearby (seeds attract rats).

To go further on the overall fight against rodents in summer, you can read our article on deratisation during heatwaves and our analysis of the Ipsos 2026 study on pests at home which confirms that 62% of French people faced a pest in 2025.

In summary

The Littré school affair is not a Parisian "news item". It is the symptom of a national conjunction: record heatwave, proliferation of brown rats in sewage networks, delayed maintenance of school buildings, sealing defects. Three reflexes to keep in mind:

• ✅ One rat seen is one rat too many: beyond three sightings in less than a week, the infestation is established and requires professional intervention.
• ✅ Biting is not normal rat behaviour: it is a sign of water or food stress, often associated with a road worksite nearby.
• ✅ Emergency comes first: in the face of bitten children, deratisation must take place within 24 hours, followed by sealing and prevention work over 30 days.

ProDeratisation operates 7 days a week in the Paris region for the emergency deratisation of schools, co-owned buildings, businesses and private homes. If you notice rats in your school, building or home, contact us immediately: free diagnostic, intervention within 24 hours, report sent to the town hall or property manager.

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