Rat gets stuck on an escalator in LA subway

Video: A failed escape route or a weekday exercise?

A failed escape route or a weekday exercise? (Newsflare.com)

Rats may be the bane of many people's lives, with any battle to rid them from a property the start of a seemingly never-ending war against a deceptively smart rodent.

Yet when it comes to escalators, it seems rats are still figuring out how to use the contraption.

This week, commuters in Los Angeles were treated to the bizarre scene of a rat using the handrail of an escalator as a sort of treadmill.

Onlookers appeared unfazed by the proximity of the rat as the small rodent attempted to somehow jump off the handrail.

At times the rat became exhausted by its workout and briefly stopped running, only to realise it was then being carried up the escalator, thus forcing the rat to resume its never-ending battle to jump off.

Eventually a woman emerges from the crowd to give the rodent a helping hand, knocking the rat from its handrail perch and allowing it to scuttle off from whence it came.

Rats in the US seem to be drawn to escalators even though they never have much luck with them.

Last year, a rat was filmed as it attempted to jump descend an escalator which was moving upwards in the Civic Center Bart station on the San Francisco subway system.

The hapless rodent makes its way down the escalator but then fails to get off the last step and continues to struggle.

Video courtesy of Newsflare.com