Could this rat stencil be the latest stunt in guerilla artist Banksy’s graffiti rampage around Tooting?

Delighted residents are convinced these latest images to appear are the work of the anonymous graffiti artist - whose work fetches millions at art auctions.

This stencil appeared with several others in Byton Road and Stella Road on Sunday morning, just one week after a Laurel and Hardy mural was found nearby.

Experts believe they are original because the street artist used rats as his trademark in other murals across London.

John Bloxham, who owns a gallery in St John's Hill said: “Banksy got the rat idea from a French graffiti artist named Blek le Rat. If this is him it could be worth a quarter of a million.”

Mark Shaw, 46, local resident and lead singer of 80s band Then Jerico, found one of the murals on a gas metre and a neighbour loved it so much he tried to rip it off the wall.

In the past week readers called to report other graffiti murals, including a gnome apparently taking a holiday on someone’s front door.

A Banksy collector, who did not want to be named, said he was sure the rats are authentic, and this is being confirmed with the artist’s spokesperson.

But many are sceptical and Eakapong Rungruangkul, 27, an art student at Wimbledon School of Art who lives in Clapham Junction, said it would be easy for someone to copy Banksy’s style.

He said: “Lots of people do it, you see lots in that style on the street. If I see a stencil I don’t automatically think it’s Banksy. But he does has an ironic view of the world, which is the crucial part, and more difficult to imitate.”

Mr Shaw said: “It could be someone pretending to be him, but whether it’s Banksy or not there’s some art terrorism going on around here and its beautiful, aggressive and incredibly horny.”

Banksy is a semi-anonymous street artist who has painted walls in London, Los Angeles and even the Israeli West Bank under the cover of night.

Last week a newspaper claimed the anonymous artist was really Robin Gunningham, 34, a former public schoolboy from Bristol, although this has not been confirmed.