A mother walking her baby in a pram has been mauled by three vicious pit bull-type dogs in Melbourne.
The woman, 35, was attacked on Withers Close in Sunbury just after 3pm on Friday afternoon, and was rushed to Royal Melbourne Hospital with serious injuries.
She managed the roll the pram to protect the baby, allowing the infant to survive uninjured.
Local residents say the dogs regularly roam free and terrorise the neighbourhood, and were responsible for a horrific attack on a 71-year-old woman a day earlier, 7 News reported.
The elderly victim was knocked to the ground and bitten on the face, back and legs on Heysen Drive, just a couple of hundred metres from Friday’s attack.
Mark Jackson witnessed the mother get attacked and said there was “blood everywhere – legs, ankles, arms, elbows, hands. It was just not a sight you want to see on a Friday afternoon”.
Animal control officers arrived at a nearby home an hour later and seized four dogs, and Hume City Council confirmed they had been removed from the premises.
Police believed that the dogs had been seized after the Thursday attack, but council said they were unable to impound them because they did not have a court order.
“Our thoughts are with the people who were injured and we wish them a swift and full recovery,” council chief executive Sheena Frost said said in a statement.
“Council officers are actively working with Victoria Police on this matter and council is unable to comment any further at this time.”
A photo posted to a local Facebook group shows three dogs believed to be responsible for the attack roaming the streets.