Girl, three, suffers serious facial injuries in Merseyside dog attack outside pub as cops arrest a man
A THREE-YEAR-OLD girl has suffered serious facial injuries in a dog attack outside a pub with cops arresting one man.
The toddler was bit in the face outside the Market Tavern pub in Merseyside on Saturday afternoon.
The girl was rushed to Alder Hey Children's Hospital just after 3pm, police said.
Officers confirmed they seized the beast and would examine it to discover its breed.
It will then be "humanely destroyed", they added.
Merseyside Chief Inspector Jim Wilde said: "This was a horrific attack which has left a young girl receiving hospital treatment for significant injuries to her face.
"I want to reassure people that she is currently receiving the best possible care and treatment for her injuries at Alder Hey, and we hope she makes a speedy recovery.
"We seized the dog at the scene, which will now be humanely destroyed, and extensive efforts are now underway to establish exactly what happened.
"I want to appeal to anyone who was in the area at the time of the incident, who may have information which could help us with our investigation to come forward as soon as possible.
"You may even live locally and have CCTV, or have been passing in a vehicle and captured dashcam footage – if so, we want to hear from you.
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"This case highlights in the starkest terms the potential dangers of dogs, and I would appeal to anyone with information about dangerous dogs in their area to contact us so that we can take pro-active action."
Staff at the Market Tavern - the cordon outside which has since been removed - said they were "devastated" over the news.
A spokesperson for the pub told the the attack happened outside, and that they were now working with detectives.
The spokesman said: "We have CCTV which covers the area and we are working with the police. We ask all dog owners to act responsible in public areas, especially around children, our thoughts are with the little girl at this time, we hope she is ok, all our staff are really devasted [sic] as to what happened outside."
Sun Online has contacted the Market Tavern for comment.