Sarah Moran, 24, said it was "like history repeating itself" when her four-year-old daughter Faye was attacked by a dog and rushed to hospital.

Faye suffered a gash to her chin and lip after an American Bulldog snapped at her in Pope Grove, Hartlepool, on Friday evening.

Although doctors have said there will be no lasting scarring to Faye's face, for Sarah the incident was all too familiar and brought back the horror of when she was attacked by an Alsation dog when she was exactly the same age.

The mum-of-one said: "It was like history repeating itself.
"I have been wary of dogs from when I was four years old.

"My attack was an Alsatian. I can't really remember it. The scars are still here now though.

"Mine was a lot worse than just a bite. The dog intentionally ran at me.

"It happened when I lived in Motherwell Road. I had to go to hospital, but I did not have plastic surgery."

Sarah, who lives with Faye and her partner, Andrew Woodward, 30, in Brunel Close, Hartlepool, called what happened this time around a "freak accident" and said that it had not been their wish for the dog to be put down.

While she said Faye was with an adult at the time of the attack, Sarah warned parents to be on their guard around dogs.

She said: "I would not say make children scared of dogs, but for parents to be a little more aware."

Sarah, a full-time carer, said she was visiting her mother in Pope Grove and Faye had gone round to a family friend's house nearby to visit the dog.

Sarah described the moment her mother came running across the street carrying her injured daughter.

She said: "There was blood streaming down her face. I went into shock. I was just crying for the ambulance to come."
Faye was taken to the University Hospital of North Tees Hospital, in Stockton.

She returned home on Friday night before going to James Cook University Hospital, in Middlesbrough, on Saturday for an operation to stitch up her chin.