A VICIOUS dog has been put in police kennels after it attacked a one-year-old boy.

Alfie Coray came close to losing his eye after he was pinned down by the dog last Friday evening at a neighbour's home in Orford.

He now has puncture wounds on his badly swollen left cheek from where the dog drew blood; one mark is just half a centimetre from his eye.

But it took police four days to take the dog, thought to be an American pit bull and Staffordshire bull terrier cross, away.

The dog's owner is currently in hospital and a neighbour was looking after it in her flat when the attack happened.

Alfie was in the living room of the neighbour's flat when his mum, Nicola, who was in the kitchen, heard him screaming.

Nicola said: "There was blood everywhere, I thought he had taken his eye out. I was mortified; I was worried about his eye or catching a disease from that thing."

The toddler was rushed to hospital and given the all clear, though doctors have said that Alfie will be scarred.

Yet Nicola had to wait until Tuesday for police to come out and take a statement from her and see the toddler's injuries.

"We phoned the police," added Nicola. "I was at the hospital when they came. They said that there was nothing they could do without the owner.

"They should have come straight away and taken that dog and put it down. It could get out and kill another kid."

She was then told that she could bring the dog to the police station and they would take care of it.

But she said: "I would not go near it, it is too vicious."

The attack comes just months after Warrington girl Ellie Lawrenson was killed by a dog at her grandmother's home.

A police spokesman said: "It is a responsibility of a dog owner to have a dog destroyed. In the days in between we have been trying to determine the feelings of the owner.

"The dog owner is still in hospital and the dog has been removed and is in police kennels."

vicki.stockman@guardiangrp.co.uk