A brave hero has described the moment he rushed in to pull a girl and boy away from dogs that were savagely attacking them in Orpington, south-east London.
McArthur Okorocha revealed the harrowing moment he saw children, aged 4 and 6, as well as a 30-year-old woman being mauled by four dogs in Mickleham Road in St Paul’s Cray at about 9am today. Okorocha said he raced to intervene when he saw the children being attacked.
“I heard screaming and shouting from the neighbours across the road and I heard the mum shouting to the girl to ‘get out’ and ‘run out,'” he said. “Then I saw the dogs biting the girl, so I had to rush over there and separate the girl from the dog when I noticed there was another little boy…who the dogs were also biting.
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Tim Merry/Staff Photographer)
“So, I grabbed the first girl and I held her and I tried to grab the second boy, then the dogs tried to attack me so I had to separate the little girl [from the dogs] and call 999. I got neighbours to call the police.”
Brave McArthur said he heard someone describe the dogs as a “Staffie”, he added the dogs were all the same breed and described them as “very big dogs”. He said he got one of the children to safety while the mum got the other child into a car to get away from the animals.
Explaining how he felt, McArthur said he wasn’t scared and there was “a lot of adrenaline going on.” Adding: “The goal was just to get the kids out of there, that was the main goal. I felt scared for the other little boy because I couldn’t get to him in time and I wanted to make sure he was ok, so I kept popping and seeing if the kid got separated because I already had the girl in [the house] and I wanted to get her brother because she was shouting for her sibling.
“But it was a bit too dangerous because we had to protect ourselves as well.” He wen ton to describe how the young girl was “crying” and “shouting in pain”, with the sight of the dogs making her cry more. Police, including some armed officers, raced to the area after being alerted and brought the dogs under control before being taken into police kennels. A woman was arrested on suspicion of having dogs dangerously out of control and is currently in police custody.
According to the peer-reviewed BMJ journal, there were 8,819 hospital attendances for dog bites in England in 2021/22. This represents an 88 per cent increase in attendances from 4,699 in 2007.
It added in 2022, there was a “sudden jump” in the number of people in England and Wales dying due to dog bite injuries. In 2022, it was recorded that 10 people died due to dog bite attacks, and four were children.
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Tim Merry / Daily Mirror)
A London Ambulance Service spokesperson previously told The Mirror: “We were called at 8.49am this morning (5 October) to reports of an incident in Mickleham Lane, Orpington. We sent a number of resources to the scene including ambulance crews, an advanced paramedic and an incident response officer. We also dispatched London’s Air Ambulance. We treated one adult and two children at the scene and took them all to a major trauma centre by road.”
Superintendent Mitch Carr, of the South Area Basic Command Unit, said residents might see an increased police presence in the area as officers carry out an investigation. Superintendent Carr added: “I know this incident will have caused a lot of public concern, especially due to the young age of the children injured. Fortunately, it is believed that none of the injuries are life-threatening.
“A woman has been arrested on suspicion of having dogs dangerously out of control and she has been taken into custody. The dogs have also been taken to police kennels while the investigation is ongoing. Extra officers will be in the area over the next few days to provide community reassurance.”
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