Father kills family dog with kitchen knife after it savages his two-year-old girl

A two-year-old has been savaged by a family dog at her home in south-east London.

The girl suffered terrible facial injuries in the attack before her father intervened and killed the dog with a kitchen knife.

She is on a ventilator at King's College Hospital where her condition is said to to be stable, but it is believed she suffered serious injuries to her jaw, nose and mouth.

Police said emergency services were called to an address in Eltham at 1.30pm yesterday after the attack by one of the family's three pet dogs, a male French Bullmastiff, similar to that pictured above.

Neighbours named the parents of the girl as Charlene and Gareth Leadbeater who also have a five-year old son called Ronnie.

The family had kept three dogs, one Alsatian and two Bullmastiffs.

It is believed the girl was alone with her father at the time of the attack. Both parents were at her bedside this afternoon.

Police took away the other Mastiff and Alsatian last night.

An investigation has been launched by Greenwich CID into the circumstances of the attack but there have been no arrests.

The incident comes amid growing alarm that some breeds of large dog are being used by gangs as weapons or status symbols.

Last week a 22-year-old man was convicted of murder after he used a dog as a weapon to bring down his victim before he stabbed him to death.

The dog used in the attack on 16-year-old Christopher Ogunyemi in Stockwell last year was a Staffordshire Bull Terrier/Bullmastiff cross.

French Bullmastiffs are better known as guard dogs than family pets. They have been described as the "National Guard Dog of France" and were once used as war dogs.