A seven-year-old girl was attacked and repeatedly bitten by a vicious dog in the children’s play area of her local park.

Southmead Primary School pupil Miah Lynch spent two days in hospital, but was saved from even worse injuries by her four-year-old brother, who shouted at her to run away.

Miah was the latest person to fall victim to dangerous dogs when she was attacked on May 23 in the Glen Albyn play area in Southfields.

The attack came just four days before a 4,500-strong petition calling for Government action on the issue was presented to 10 Downing Street after a campaign launched last year in nearby Battersea Park.

Miah was playing in the park outside her Chobham Gardens home when the half-Staffie, half-alsatian, which was off its leash, launched itself at her, biting her repeatedly on her right leg.

She was taken to St George’s Hospital, where she spent two days and had to have an operation to cleanse and stitch the wounds.

Her mother, Melanie Lynch, said it could have been much worse but for Miah’s four-year-old brother, Abishai, who told her to run away.

She said: “She was sat playing on the grass and it just launched for her.

“My son told her to run but because she was sitting down she could not get up quick enough.”

“The woman [walking the dog] ran up and managed to get the dog off her. They were in shock.

“What if my daughter had not managed to get up? It could have ripped her face off.”

The woman walking the dog told Mrs Lynch the dog would be put down.

But she was later informed it had been given back to its original owner and had not been put down.

Council bylaws ban dogs from going into children’s play areas and the Metropolitan Police are currently investigating the matter.

Last week, the deputy mayor of London responsible for policing, Kit Malthouse, who presented the petition to Downing Street, said: "We’ve had more than 4,000 signatures to our petition calling on the Government to act, which proves that people do not feel that enough is being done to protect them.

"The message today is plain and clear – the Government needs to act urgently to protect Londoners and their pets from savage attacks by weapon dogs.

"Unless legislation is toughened up, these attacks will continue."