COPS FIND £1MILLION CASH IN ATTIC

Lolly cop ... the haul of banknotes

Caters News Agency

By ANDREW PARKER

DRUGS-raid cops found £1million in cash stuffed into a holdall stashed in an attic.

The householder couldn't prove it was earned legitimately - so cops were allowed to KEEP the huge haul of £10 and £20 notes.

It will now be ploughed into crime-fighting projects.

Drugs and an industrial-size cash counting machine were also found at the house in Stechford, Birmingham, but cops wouldn't say last night if anyone was arrested.

The raid was part of an ongoing operation targeting a criminal network in the city, in which several arrests have been made.

Detectives made the find in September, but details were only released yesterday because the owners had 28 days to provide proof of where it came from so they could claim it back.

When no evidence was given, cops successfully applied to Birmingham JPs to keep the cash "on the basis it was obtained through drug dealing".

The haul is the largest single seizure of cash by West Midlands Police.

Det Chief Insp Steven Reed said: "We hope it will go a long way towards disrupting criminal activity in the area and reassure the public we are committed to protecting them from drug dealers."

GAME ADDICT KIDS HIT BY ‘EXTINCT’ BONE DISEASE

Pampered ... today's kids are at risk SSPL/Getty

Deprived ... young victim in 1890

SSPL/Getty

By EMMA MORTON, Health and Science Editor

CRIPPLING bone disease rickets has made a shock comeback - because kids are staying indoors with video games instead of playing in the sunshine.

The condition - rife in gloomy 19th-century slums but wiped out in Britain in the 1930s - has been found in more than A FIFTH of children in a Southampton study.

And unlike the olden days, when it was linked with poverty, medics say it is now just as rife in middle-class youngsters.

The disease is caused by a lack of vitamin D - created when sun reacts with the skin - and causes children's bones to become soft.

Classic signs of the disease in the past include bow legs and "knock knees".

Stunned study leader Professor Nicholas Clarke said: "It is quite astonishing. This is a completely new occurrence that has evolved over the last 12 to 24 months.

Junk ... bad diets worsen vitamin D shortage

Alex Segre / Alamy

"We are seeing cases across the board, from areas of deprivation up to the middle classes."

Paediatric orthopedic surgeon Professor Clarke, of Southampton General Hospital, checked more than 200 local kids for the study. He said children must be encouraged to get more sun, by cutting down on computer games and walking to and from school.

Dr Justin Davies, a consultant paediatric endocrinologist, added: "This is almost certainly a combination of the modern lifestyle, which involves a lack of exposure to sunlight, but also covering up in sunshine, and we're seeing cases that are very reminiscent of 17th-century England.

Hell ... bow legs

"This would have been inconceivable only a year or so ago."

Despite a handful of cases in recent years, the disease was largely wiped out in Britain in the 1930s thanks to vitamin D-packed supplements like cod liver oil.

But oily fish is eaten less now, and dairy and eggs - which also contain the "sunlight vitamin" - have also been cut down on.

The Southampton medics also say modern food such as takeaways and ready meals also have fewer nutrients than fresh food.

People need just 20 minutes exposure to natural sunlight daily to help the body to metabolise vitamin D and ward off rickets.

myView

By CAROL COOPER

Sun Doctor

RICKETS is due to severe vitamin D deficiency in kids, either because their skin doesn't get enough sun or their diet is poor - or a combination of the two.

Around half the UK's youngsters are said to run short of vitamin D, so it was only a matter of time before rickets reappeared.

The action of sunlight on the skin is crucial in making vitamin D but many kids don't play outside much. They need to get more sun, rather than being cooped up inside.

Low vitamin D levels also run in families, with pregnant women who go short likely to have babies deficient in it too. And people with darker skins need more sunlight.

Vitamin D does more than build healthy bones and teeth - long-term deficiency is also linked to cancer and multiple sclerosis.

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Peril of the slums

ANCIENT Roman medics described the symptoms of rickets - but it really ran rife after the Industrial Revolution.

People living in slums with little natural light and poor diets caused it to flourish so much it became known as "the English disease".

Symptoms usually surfaced from the ages of one to five. As well as bow legs and knock knees, some children's bones were rendered so weak they could only move by shuffling along on their bottoms.

All that changed with vitamin D supplements like cod liver oil in the 1930s.

The disease was quickly all but extinct here, though it still plagues poorer countries.

SPLIT ON WATER ORDEAL

'Circle of hell' ... Oliver gets waterboarded

BRITS are divided on the use of waterboarding on terror suspects, a Sun survey has revealed.

A YouGov poll found 41 per cent supported the controversial technique - which simulates drowning - to extract information.

The same number were opposed to it, with 18 per cent undecided in a survey of 2,000 people.

'It works' ... George Bush

It follows ex-US President George W Bush's revelation that attacks in the UK had been averted by its use.

Sun reporter Oliver Harvey, who volunteered to undergo waterboarding in yesterday's edition, said it was like being in "a circle of hell".

Readers backed the technique on our website. Leong2582 wrote: "Security services should be left to do whatever they need to do to keep us safe."k.schofield@the-sun.co.uk

INVASION OF GIANT RATS

HORRIFIED neighbours told yesterday how their homes are being invaded by giant rats - including a 30-INCH LONG monster that was shot dead.

The rodents, twice the size of common types, are plaguing an estate in Bradford, West Yorks, often appearing in kitchens and lounges.

It is feared some could be "super rats" from South America.

Pictured above is a monster 2½ft rat killed on the estate.

Rat in me kitchen ... mother Julie Briggs

But the shaken man who shot it in the head - 31-year-old Brandon Goddard - yesterday revealed FOUR others of the same size scuttled away to safety.

And he said: "They were more like Ratzillas than rats.

"I got out of there as fast as I could. Who knows how many there will be if they've been breeding?"

The shot rat, feared to be from a species native to South America, is TWICE as big as common British types and the largest seen here.

The residents of Ravenscliffe estate in Bradford, West Yorks, are used to seeing massive rodents that sometimes appear in their kitchens and lounges.

Even so, the new colony shocked them. Shown a picture of the dead creature, mum-of-five Rebecca Holmes, 38, gasped: "Oh my God! I've seen them as big as cats but never that big."

Shot rat ... Brandon

Brandon toted an air rifle as he went "ratting" with pals on the edge of the estate - which they had heard was rife with rodents.

The group heard "rustling and scrabbling" before the five huge rats shot out from behind a wall. Brandon, a manager at a cleaning firm, said: "The first went right past but we got the second one. Then three more got away.

"I've seen thousands of rats during the course of my work and go shooting a couple of times a week. But I've never seen any as big as this. The one I shot was absolutely terrifying. I was shaking. Goodness knows where the others went. I'm glad I don't live there."

After taking the photo, the ratters dumped the shot rodent in undergrowth. It is thought it was eaten by a fox.

The estate has long had a monster rat problem. Rebecca told how her cat Marie cornered one in her lounge. But it stood and fought as it was just as big as the moggy.

A neighbour clobbered it with a baseball bat.

And he and Marie took five dead rats to the local council's offices, tipping them over a desk to demand action.

Rebecca said: "They came quickly, blocked holes and put down poison. But people still see them outside regularly."

Neighbour Julie Briggs, 28, told how she and partner Andrew Denton, 24, hear rats fighting and squealing in the walls of their rented semi, which stands opposite open countryside.

Mum-of-six Julie said: "I find droppings on the cooker when they get into the house. I've seen them in the lounge as we watch TV.

"At night you can hear them chasing each other in the loft. They sound like drag racing cars as they screech across the rafters."

Last night experts called the shot rat "extraordinary" and said the colony was worth investigating.

Laura Drake, of the Mammal Society, speculated it could be a coypu - a South American rodent often referred to as a "giant rat".

Coypus were thought to have been eradicated in Britain in a cull 20 years ago. But Laura said it was "not impossible" there had been survivors.

Yorkshire Rat Club president Colin Arundel said rodents, like humans, could simply be getting bigger as food becomes more and more available.

The RSPCA said: "The most likely answer is the shot rat was from a non-indigenous species that was in captivity and got out."

Read more: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3102460/Invasion-of-the-giant-rats-in-Bradford.html#ixzz0x1e4byXR