Baby injured in dog rampage

Published: Thursday, 9 October 2008, 10:38AM

A baby was among four people attacked by a pitbull-type terrier that went on the rampage.

A bus driver has been hailed a hero after he rescued the baby from the jaws of the animal, reportedly called Asbo.

He was attacked by the animal as he stepped in to help after it "went wild" on a street in Mitcham, south London. The baby, thought to be around one-year-old, was taken to hospital with leg injuries and has since been discharged.

Its owner, a 29-year-old woman from Mitcham, was questioned by police and bailed over the incident. The dog was destroyed.

Jackie Haggis, a 38-year-old foster carer from Tavistock Crescent, Mitcham, watched the scene unfold from her window and said: "I saw the dog with a baby in its mouth. It dragged the baby about 60 yards across the green.

"I seriously panicked and called 999 straight away. The men were trying to hit the dog with a fire extinguisher from a bus and with sticks but it wouldn't let go."

She added: "Eventually a man came onto the green in a pickup truck and tried to run the dog over but it didn't succeed.

"Instead the dog turned on another man and to escape he jumped in the back of the pickup truck.

"The dog went berserk and started chasing the man in the truck down the road. It was going absolutely wild."

She added: "If the bus driver hadn't come to the baby's rescue, it would have certainly been killed. It was absolutely petrifying."

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