A four-year-old boy has died after being attacked by a pit bull terrier in Liverpool.
The child - named locally as John-Paul Massey - suffered serious injuries at a house in Wavertree, Liverpool, in the early hours of today.
He was pronounced dead at the scene, Merseyside Police said.
A woman (63), who is believed to have been injured as tried to stop the boy being attacked, was taken to hospital for treatment.
Dog handlers and armed response officers attended the house in Ash Grove at 12.24am and found the dog in an "agitated state" in the front garden, a police spokesman said. The dog was later destroyed.
The dog, described as a pit bull type, is thought to have belonged to the boy’s uncle, a serving soldier.
The 1991 Dangerous Dogs Act prohibits the possession of certain types of dogs that are bred for fighting.
Nearly 200 illegal dogs were seized or handed over to police in the Liverpool area during an amnesty in the months after a pit-bull terrier killed a five-year-old girl near the city in 2007.