A woman has died after a dog attacked her in Bristol on Wednesday, while neighbors reported its owner ‘running from home hysterically screaming and covered in blood’.
The 19-year-old had been inside a flat on Cobhorn Drive, in the city’s Hartcliffe area, when she was mauled around 7 pm.
She was pronounced dead at the scene after an attempt by paramedics to save her.
Two people – a man and a woman, both in their 20s – have been arrested on suspicion of being in charge of a dog dangerously out of control, causing injury, resulting in death.
They have also been arrested on suspicion of possession of a prohibited dog breed, believed to be an XL Bully, according to police.
It has since been sedated and seized by police, who are holding it for assessment by veterinary experts.
A neighbor said the dog owner left their house covered in blood and sat in the street crying, according to The Sun.
They said: ‘It was almost like she was trying to scream, cry and ask for help all at the same time.
‘She sat on the steps and a few hours were going by and they didn’t arrest her or anything. She didn’t go back in at all.
‘She had blood on her. I don’t know if she was injured, trying to stop the dog from doing the attack.
‘She had it on her front. It was more than a little bit [of blood].’
Neighbor Doreen Tovey found it ‘very frightening’. She told BBC News: ‘I came out my house to see what all the commotion was.
‘[There were] loads of police cars, riot van, ambulance across the road from me.’
Gary Steadman, who said he heard ‘screaming’, described the dog as ‘big, butch and brown and white’.
Speaking at a press conference today, Inspector Terry Murphy said the incident was ‘incredibly rare’.
‘The circumstances [officers] faced were “immensely difficult”, he said.
‘Our thoughts, first and foremost, are with the family of the young woman who’s tragically died as a result of yesterday evening’s incident.
‘A full investigation is now well under way to establish the full circumstances of the events that led to her death.
‘Police do not consider there to be any ongoing risk to the public.’
He declined to comment on whether the woman who died lived at the address where the incident happened, or if there had been previous police contact with the household.
An 84-year-old man was seriously injured when another dog – also believed to be an XL Bully – dragged him into a garden on Bardsley Avenue, in Warrington, on Monday.
Police shot the suspected XL Bully dead and shot a second dog 19 times. A third smaller dog was also seized.
Last February, the government banned the ownership or possession of an XL Bully dog in England and Wales unless you have a valid certificate of exemption.
It’s also illegal to sell, abandon, give away or breed an XL Bully, or to have one in public without a lead or muzzle.
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