XL bully dog attack on Fleetwood woman ‘stopped with machete’

Desperate neighbours including a “man with a machete” intervened to help stop an XL bully dog mauling a woman.

The woman, in her 40s, is being treated in hospital for serious injuries after the attack in Fleetwood, Lancashire, at about 16:45 BST on Thursday.

Witnesses said a number of people went to help after the dog escaped from a back door and went for the woman, who is believed to be related to its owner.

The BBC understands the dog was wounded at the scene on Wingrove Road before being destroyed by Lancashire Police officers and then seized.

Witnesses told the BBC a man attacked the dog with the machete-style weapon after some residents had tried to run it over with a car.

They said the dog never usually left the address without a muzzle and it is believed the dog was legally kept.

The witnesses also said the animal ran at the woman in front of a street full of children playing outside.

Melissa Taylor, 31, who lives near the scene, told the BBC she heard “gut-wrenching screams”.

She said: “All the neighbours proper chipped-in to help the woman out, and there was a lot of guys trying to get the dog and people were rushing around.

“Prior to even the police arriving it was all the neighbours that helped, like people from down the road.”

She said she did not leave her house to avoid any risk to her young children and her own dog, but described the sound of screaming as “horrible”.

An XL bully is the largest kind of American bully dog.

Since 1 February 2024, it has been a criminal offence to own one without an exemption certificate.