Funny how what is quite normal behaviour gets relabelled when people want to make a story (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/29/summer-of-the-cannibal-rats-hungry-aggressive-highly-fertile-and-coming-to-our-homes). It is hardly remarkable that, in Covid-19 lockdown, UK rats have been redirected by their stomachs away from restaurants and beauty spots (closed and unsupplied with the typical human waste) to our homes and gardens (suddenly better supplied with edibles). It is also unremarkable that we humans (many of us having been forced to remain local for extended periods of time) have noticed them more. This, of course, has led to more call-outs to pest control agencies (and stories of rats biting pensioners on their bums as they sit on the toilet or demolishing the seating in a garaged camper van). The description 'cannibal rats' is a bit anthropomorphic. Rats have never turned their noses up at food, even when its the babies of another rat, a stranger or even a mouse. And, yes, mother rats will 'recycle' their babies rather than starve as there may be a chance to breed some other day. The description 'aggressive' is also a bit anthropomorphic. Rats will leap at and attempt to bite, humans or cats but this is essentially a defensive response against something that is bigger and perceived as being more dangerous. They are also territorial and will attack stranger rats who are not members of their colony. Unremarkably, hungry rats will also be more visible as they are forced to take more chances in their unceasing search for food. Being highly fertile (hardly a new observation) is one of the ways that rats deal with a hostile world, inflicting many mortalities on their species. Go Ratty!
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