Woman reported after dog mauls girl

A woman has been reported to prosecutors after a 10-year-old girl was bitten on the face by a dog, it emerged last night.

Toni Clannachan had part of her cheek torn apart by an American akita that bit her while she was playing in a school friend's garden on Tuesday. The youngster needed more than 100 stitches for the injury. She was taken to Crosshouse Hospital in Kilmarnock, Ayrshire, and was in a stable condition yesterday. A spokeswoman for Strathclyde Police said last night: "A 41-year-old woman is the subject of a report to the Procurator Fiscal and the dog has been seized." Prosecutors will decide whether the woman, who has not been arrested, should face any charges.

Toni's father, James Dixon, told the Daily Record newspaper: "These dogs shouldn't be... around kids. They are killing machines. If the dog had bitten her an inch or so lower, it would have severed an artery in her neck."

The dog attack is the second of its kind this week in Scotland. On Sunday, 10-year-old Rhianna Kidd was mauled by two rottweilers in Dundee. She was treated for a fractured jaw and has had to have plastic surgery. The dogs have been put down. A 33-year-old woman was charged in connection with the attack under the Dangerous Dogs Act, Tayside Police said.