Woman badly hurt by escaped American pit bull

The 22-year-old victim remains in hospital in Lincoln after being attacked by what Lincolnshire Police believe to be an American pitbull.

The attack sparked a hunt for the animal using armed officers and a police helicopter centred on a quarry in the Outer Circle Road area of the city.

Police warned local people to stay away from the area, with a spokeswoman saying: “We would ask that members of the public stay away from the area for their own safety at this time.”

The force later said the animal was caught at around 1.30am and confirmed the attack victim was not its owner.

Staff at Lincoln County Hospital had raised the alarm at around 10.30pm last night after the woman was admitted with her injuries.

It is the latest attack by what is thought to be an American pitbull-type dog.

Last month 11-month-old Ava Jayne Marie Corless was mauled to death by a dog believed to be of that species while in bed at a house in Emily Street, Blackburn, Lancashire.

An Alaskan Malamute and a collie-cross were destroyed following the death of a six-day-old girl in Pontyberem, Carmarthenshire, West Wales. The cause of Eliza-Mae Mullane’s death on February 18 is not yet known

In November last year, four-year-old Lexi Branson was mauled to death by a pet dog despite her mother’s desperate attempts to halt the attack. Lexi was attacked at a flat in Mountsorrel, Leicestershire. The dog had been a stray until a couple of months earlier.

In June 2013, a five-year-old boy was taken to hospital after being mauled by a dog in Co Antrim, Northern Ireland. The attack happened at Carniny Primary School on the outskirts of Ballymena. The boy was taken to hospital in Belfast where his condition was described as serious. It was later confirmed that the dog was being shown to schoolchildren as a last-day-of-term treat.

Clifford Clarke, 79, was killed in a dog attack in his garden in Liverpool last May. The retired hospital porter suffered fatal injuries after being mauled by a bull mastiff-cross which was reported to have found a way into Mr Clarke’s garden from a neighbouring house. The dog was shot dead by armed officers and two women from the area, aged 27 and 28, were arrested and bailed on suspicion of manslaughter.

Two months earlier, Jade Anderson, 14, was mauled to death by four dogs while visiting her friend near Wigan. The girl was discovered by armed police at a friend’s house in Chaucer Grove, Atherton, amid a pack of aggressive dogs. The animals, who were not on the list of breeds banned by the Dangerous Dogs Act, were put down after the incident.

The owner of the animals, mother-of-one Beverley Concannon, 45, was given a suspended 16-week sentence at Wigan Magistrates’ Court for animal cruelty.