BBC NEWS - Dog killed after attacking child

Terrified residents have told how a savage dog dragged an 18-month-old baby along before a bus driver intervened.

The dog, called Asbo, bit four people in Mitcham, south London, on Wednesday before being shot dead by police.

The bull terrier, which had escaped from a garden, bit the child before attacking the bus driver. It then bit a 50-year-old woman and a fourth person.

A woman, 29, was arrested for having a dog dangerously out of control. The bite victims were taken to hospital.

Jackie Haggis, a 38-year-old foster carer from Tavistock Crescent, Mitcham, witnessed the attack from her house, which was only 15 yards away.

She said: "I had just done the vacuuming and I sat on the bed with the laptop and heard a load of noise outside.

"The noise became louder and turned into screaming and shouting, and I looked out of the window and saw a group of men on the grass outside my window.

"Then I saw the dog with a baby in its mouth. It dragged the baby about 60 yards across the green.

"The men were trying to hit the dog with a fire extinguisher from a bus and with sticks but it wouldn't let go.

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

"The dog went berserk and started chasing the man in the truck down the road.

"It was going absolutely wild."

She added: "We heard about five shots about two hours later, which was when the dog was killed."

Another eyewitness, Oliver Davis, a martial arts teacher from Yorkshire Road, Mitcham, said: "As I was coming across the road with my two children I saw the dog dragging the child across the grass on the common.

"There were four or five people trying to help but the dog was just turning on them.

"It was a crazy, mad dog. It wanted to attack everything and everyone."