A four-year-old boy was left with bite marks to his face after being mauled by a dog at a house in the Black Country. He is believed to have been playing at a friend’s home.

The youngster was attacked by the dog, thought to be a Staffordshire bull terrier, at a house in Thorne Road, Willenhall.

The dog  has now been destroyed. Police and paramedics were called to the home at 11.37am yesterday  and the boy was taken to Wolverhampton’s New Cross Hospital.

The injured youngster it thought to have been playing at a friend’s house when the family’s dog attacked but is now recovering at his own home, also in Thorne Road. His parents were too upset to talk today.

One resident, who did not want to be named, said: “It was an utter shock. Everyone was so worried for the little lad when he was rushed off to hospital.

“You just never think something like this will happen on your street.”

It is the latest in a string of dog attacks in the region in recent months.

On Christmas Day, 11-year-old Finn O’Mahoney was attacked by a Chinese sharpei in his home in Whitmore Reans, Wolverhampton, which had been taken in as a stray.

Earlier this month, a woman was attacked by a bull terrier in George Street, Halesowen.