They look cheesed off! Moment mice spar in front of commuters waiting for the Tube

This is the moment two mice sparred on a train platform while commuters waited for the Tube.

The battle of the rodents was caught on camera on the Central Line platform at Oxford Circus on Saturday.

In the footage, a passenger can be heard chuckling as the mice chase each other in circles in a fight over what appears to be a piece of food.

Without a Tom to break up the two Jerrys, their altercation escalates further as the mice start lunging at each other, egged on by the person recording who says: ‘Go on, get him!’ 

A brief detente then ensues with the mice moving to different sides of the platform.

However, the tiny tussle then resumes and they begin sparring once more.

In scenes reminiscent of a fisticuffs fight, the mice then appear to be locked in a bizarre boxing match as they stand on their hind legs and throw punches at one another – much to the delight of onlookers who can be heard sniggering.

Eventually, one mouse comes out of the battle victorious and the other is forced to scurry away while the champion enjoys their prize. 

The scene at Oxford Circus was remarkably similar to photographer Sam Rowley’s award-winning picture of two mice fighting on an Underground platform.

‘Station Squabble’, as the photograph was titled, beat 48,000 other entries to win the Natural History Museum’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition in 2020.

In order to capture the image, Mr Rowley spent a week overnight in the Tube network where he received ‘strange looks from commuters’ when he had to lie down on platforms in his attempts to get the best shot.

The panel of judges said at the time: ‘Sam discovered the best way to photograph the mice inhabiting London’s Underground was to lie on the platform and wait.

‘He only saw them fight over scraps of food dropped by passengers a few times, possibly because it is so abundant. This fight lasted a split second, before one grabbed a crumb and they went their separate ways.’