Health officials have described as "disgusting" a Dublin supermarket which was infested by mice. The store was forced to close yesterday.
Tesco's Prussia Street store was served with a closure order by the Northern Area Health Board.
An inspection by environmental health officers on Thursday, following a consumer complaint, found a number of breaches of food hygiene regulations.
Mr Alan Reilly, head of operations at the Food Safety Authority of Ireland, said the inspectors had found "dead and live mice and mice droppings.
"It was disgusting. There were also shredded food cartons. It was obvious that the mice were active."
A closure order is served only if there is "grave and immediate danger to public health", according to the authority. This is the first supermarket to be closed under the FSAI Act 1998. Mr Ray Ellard, the authority's chief specialist in environmental health, said Tesco was working on remedial action and it was expected that the order would be lifted today. The company had been working overnight to solve the problem, he added.
To date, 31 premises have been served with closure notices under the FSAI Act.
The chief executive of the Consumers' Association of Ireland, Mr Dermott Jewell, said the management of Tesco had "a lot of answer for. They should not just explain what has happened but why".
Mr Jewell said it was totally unacceptable that a shop in which food items were stocked should have such an infestation. "It should have been closed long before it was forced to do so," he said.
A statement from Tesco apologised to customers "for any inconvenience while the store remains closed". Tesco was "treating the situation as highly serious and a thorough investigation into the source of the problem is under way".