Baby mauled to death by rottweiler guard dogs at her grandparents' pub

A five-month-old girl has died after being attacked by two rottweilers in the living quarters above a pub.

The baby, who has not been named, was dragged by one of the dogs on to the roof of The Rocket public house in Leicester on Saturday afternoon, a family member was reported as saying. She was taken to the Leicester Royal Infirmary but died from her injuries. Her parents were believed to be looking after the pub and the dogs while the landlord was on holiday.

Leicestershire Police said the dogs had been put down.

Flowers, balloons and teddy bears were left across the entrance to the pub, which remained closed yesterday. A neighbour, who would not be named, said: "They went for her face... It doesn't bear thinking about. If that was my baby I'd want the animals destroyed, in fact I'd want to do it myself."

Amy Grimbley, who lives on an adjoining street on the inner-city estate, said the dogs were used as security by the landlord and were always kept out of the pub itself. She said: "The dogs are known to be vicious. They are guard dogs. They would stay on the roof during the day and whenever you walked past you got the feeling they could just jump down and attack you.

"They were very aggressive. Everybody around here was petrified of them. The dogs were never allowed in the pub, they were kept upstairs in the living quarters."

Jannette Blunden, secretary of the Midlands Rottweiler Association, said: "Without knowing all the details of this case, it goes without saying that children should never be left alone with any breed of dog.

"Rottweilers are big and powerful, so when something goes wrong the effects can be tragic." The infant's death is the second dog attack on a child in the past five weeks. Four-year-old George Brown needed 200 stitches in his face after he was mauled by an American bulldog as he played near his home in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire.

Earlier this month Andy Gregory, 45, a former rugby league player with Wigan Warriors, was attacked by a rottweiler as he walked his two dogs in a Lancashire park. In 1989 11-year-old Kellie Lynch was killed by two rottweilers belonging to a friend and in 1996 David Kearney, 11, died after being mauled by two rottweilers in Darwen, Lancashire.