Woman who bravely stopped pitbull mauling man, 24, to death on walk near primary school claims the dog 'would have killed him' if she hadn't intervened

A woman who bravely stopped a pitbull mauling a 24-year-old man has claimed it would have killed him if she hadn't intervened. 

The man was walking the black pitbull-Staffordshire terrier cross through a playing field in Aberavon, South Wales when it suddenly turned on him this morning. 

He was trapped by a six-foot metal boundary fence which was left covered in blood after the 7am attack.

A woman from the nearest house was woken up by the noise and ran out to drag the vicious dog away before locking it in her garden. 

She told MailOnline: 'I heard the commotion in the field. I went outside and I could see the dog had hold of the man by the arm which was all ripped apart.

'The dog would have gone for his neck - it would have killed him. I got it off him and managed to get it into my garden before the police arrived.'

The woman, who was in her forties and didn't want to be named, said she didn't know the man and had never seen him walking the dog before.

Armed police were called to Blair Way in Aberavon at 7am this morning, and neighbours were told to stay in their homes and lock the doors.

The victim, a 24-year-old local man, was taken to hospital for surgery to his injuries which led to a serious blood loss.

The green, spiked metal railings were covered in blood and a large rock was also spattered as the man tried to fight the dog off.

A neighbour said: 'It is pretty gruesome, it looks like he couldn't get out of the field because of the railings. I think he was trying to climb them to escape.

'There is a gap a bit further up but if the dog had hold of him he wouldn't have been able to reach it.'

The dog was sedated at the scene and taken to a police compound. Locals said a vet had been called to put it down.

Corrie Sullivan, 29, who works in a day care centre in Blair Way, said: 'I saw it being carried out of the woman's house by four police officers. It was in a blue container of some sort.

'It happened before I got to work but some of my colleagues said the street was full of police and an air ambulance landed to take the man to hospital.'

The attack happened on a field with football and rugby posts just 150 yards from a primary school.

South Wales Police said the dog belonged to a member of the victim's family.

A spokesman said: 'A 24-year-old man has been taken to hospital by Air Ambulance with serious injuries.

'The dog has been sedated and removed from the scene by Police Dog units. Our investigation is ongoing.'

The Welsh Ambulance Service said: 'We were called on today at 7:14am to reports of an incident at Nobel Avenue, Port Talbot. 

'We sent one emergency ambulance to the scene.

'Advanced critical care support was delivered by the Emergency Medical Retrieval and Transfer Service in a Wales Air Ambulance charity helicopter. One person was taken by road to hospital.'

One of the UK's most recent fatal dog attacks saw a mother of two mauled to death by her two XL Bully dogs in Hornchurch, East London. 

Angeline Mahal, who was in her 50s, died at home in the first deadly attack by a registered XL Bully since the breed was banned in February. 

The two dogs were seized by police - some bearing riot shields - after being contained in a room.

Recent figures showed dog attacks have risen by a fifth in one year, with police recording more than 80 incidents a day.

Police forces recorded 30,539 offences of a dog injuring a person or a guide dog last year, an investigation by the BBC found, increasing from 25,291 in 2022.

In March, an XL Bully was killed by armed police after going on a rampage and injuring four people in Battersea, south-west London.

Shocking footage on social media shows four men fending off the 'dangerously out of control' dog after it got into a frenzy on a street close to Battersea Park Road.

One man can be seen hitting the dog with a bike helmet while another tries to cover it with a blanket in a desperate attempt to subdue the animal.

A second video shows police and ambulance crews descending on the scene, before armed officers later shot the dog due to the threat it posed to the public.

Four men were taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries and a man, 22, and a woman, 21, arrested of owning a dog that was dangerously out of control.