Two young children have been rushed to hospital following a vicious dog attack.
An eight-year-old boy sustained serious facial injuries and police say a six-year-old girl suffered an arm injury following the incident in Cannock, Staffordshire.
Both children have been taken to Birmingham Children’s Hospital for treatment.
A woman also received an arm injury, but did not need to be admitted to hospital, reports Stoke-on-Trent Live.
It is not known at this stage whether the three people are related and how they came to encounter the dog.
Have you been affected by this story? Email webnews@mirror.co.uk
The first thing many local residents knew about it was when they saw the emergency response. One neighbour reported hearing screaming, although it’s unclear whether this was coming from a garden or in the street, StokeonTrent Live reports.
Ella Harper, from Brook Vale, had just come home when she witnessed a commotion. The 37-year-old said: “I saw an ambulance and police cars. There was a helicopter circling. I don’t know anything about what happened though.”
It is understood police have since been searching a property in The Ridings, which is next to Brook Vale, and a police car has remained parked outside the house. Neighbours say this is where the dog owner lives.
Tracey Massey lives further along The Ridings. The 58-year-old said: “He’s a lovely dog and well trained. I don’t know his exact breed.
“He’s normally such a gentle dog. I don’t know how this has happened. I know they’ve also got a puppy.
“The policewoman said the dog had run off. I don’t know where he is.”
Another resident said: “I was just doing something in the back and looked out of the window. I saw lots of police cars. The police didn’t say anything about what had happened.”
A police spokesman said: “Police were called at 12.40pm this afternoon to reports that a woman, a boy and a girl had received injuries after being bitten by a dog on Brook Vale.”
The dog attack comes days after 17-month-old Bell-Rae Birch was mauled to death in her own home by an American Bully XL.
Bella-Rae was tragically killed on March 21 after being attacked by the family’s new pet dog, where they lived in St Helen's, Merseyside.
The dog, which the family bought just a week before the attack, has now been confirmed to have been an American Bully XL, a legal breed not subject to any prohibitions under the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991.
Inquiries are ongoing and anyone with information is being urged to contact police.
They can either send a message via Staffordshire Police’s Facebook page or call 101, quoting incident number 360 of March 26.
