SINGAPORE - Chinese restaurant Hotpot Culture was suspended by the authorities after pictures of a rat carcass in a dish surfaced online.

National Environment Agency (NEA) officers were inspecting the restaurant at Marina Square after reports were made against the restaurant by one of its customers, Ms Caron Chan.

Ms Chan and her colleagues went to Hotpot Culture's porridge buffet at Marina Square on Friday afternoon for lunch.

Instead, she found a rat carcass in a pot of vegetables.

She posted the picture of the horrific find on her Facebook account and it attracted dozens of comments.

"The staff looked shocked after seeing the rat. I am not sure if manager was aware of what happened at that time," Ms Chan told website Stomp.

She also reported seeing a commotion between some customers and the restaurant's staff.

Ms Chan added: "The staff should have stopped the buffet line. I called NEA to tell them what happened."

When The Straits Times called Hotpot Culture, the supervisor denied the incident, saying the customer had made a mistake.

She said in Mandarin: "They made a mistake, it's just vegetables that looked like something else, there was no rat body."

The supervisor refused to comment further on the incident.

Ms Chan said that she had reported the incident to the NEA and in the evening, NEA officers were at the scene.

NEA later confirmed that the restaurant has been suspended while the case is being investigated.