Zoe Stenton was bitten at lunchtime after joining one of her friends at the party in a garden of a house on the Whitworth Common estate in Castleford, West Yorkshire.

The tan Akita and Alsation cross, called Spike, was in the garden playing with the children when Zoe tried to climb over the gate.

Thinking she was threatening, Spike jumped up and attacked her.

Zoe, from Castleford, West Yorkshire, is being treated at Pinderfields Hospital, Wakefield, for lacerations to her face.

The dog was taken away by West Yorkshire Police to be destroyed. It was owned by Emma Cutting, 28, and her partner Dave Murdoch, 30, who were holding the party at their Chiltern Avenue home for six-year-old son, Connor Cutting.

Neighbour Mandy Smith, 36, a warehouse operative for Asda, says: "I heard loads of screaming at about 12.30 this afternoon and looked out of my window. I couldn't see anything though.

"Minutes later I heard sirens screeching up the street, I knew something serious must have happened.

"The family got the dog as a puppy a few years ago, but it's massive now. I've thought to myself before that it could do some damage to someone one day."