A nurse was savagely bitten in a ferocious dog attack that left her injured and her Irish terrier with serious wounds.

Theresa Hurford has been off work ever since the attack on November 4 because her injuries to her hands are so severe.

Her dog Frankie, two-and-a half, needed more than £700 worth of surgery and has been left traumatised by the incident.

But although the attack was witnessed, police are to take no action against the men who were walking the Staffordshire bull terrier when it launched the attack after getting free from its lead.

The incident happened on November 4 about 4.30pm when Mrs Hurford was walking her dog along Ringstead Road near her Sutton home.

She saw the two men approaching with the dog on the other side of the road.

“It suddenly reared up and lunged at us. It went up on its hind legs and started spiralling and got off its lead.

“It charged across the road to us and I turned my back on it and tried to protect my dog but it grabbed him and it pulled us to the floor and dragged us down the road.

“I screamed at the men to get the dog off. People came and started kicking at it to make it let go and someone came out with a broom and started beating it to make it release my dog.

“It was terrifying - absolutely horrendous.

“I have been injured but if I had a child with me it could have been killed. I feel dreadful and I ache all over and my dog has been traumatised”.

She is deeply upset that the police are to take no action over the attack.

“I don’t know how on earth they can say it is not a dangerous dog. It was intent on causing injury and in my opinion it was a dangerous dog.”

A spokesman for Sutton police said: “Under the Dangerous Dogs Act, it is an offence for a dog owner, or the person in charge of the dog at the time, to have a dangerously out of control dog in a public place.

“If the dog goes on to injure a person this would be an aggravated offence.

“Police will take action in cases where dogs, especially those specified as potentially dangerous, injure someone whilst dangerously out of control.

“However, on this occasion taking into account the evidence available, it was considered that an offence under the Dangerous Dogs Act hadn’t been committed because a ‘fit and proper’ person was in charge of the dog at the time of the incident, even though the dog managed to break free from its lead.

“Sutton Police take all such reports seriously and were on scene within ten minutes of being called.”

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