Gene Hackman’s home was infested with rats which carry the disease which killed his wife, an investigation found.

An assessment of the late actor’s $4 million (£3 million) property in Santa Fe, New Mexico, was carried out a week after the bodies of Mr Hackman, 95, and his wife Betsy Arakwa, 65, were discovered.

Traps had been set up throughout the several buildings that made up the property, investigators from the New Mexico Department of Public Health said.

Investigators also found rodent droppings, a live rodent and rodent nests in three of the garages. There were additional rodent droppings in two external houses and three sheds within 50 ft of the main house.

The main living area was “clean with no signs of rodent activity,” New Mexico public health officials said.