A 10-year-old girl is in hospital with injuries to her entire body after she was horrifically mauled by her pet dog on Sunday night.
Neighbours on Skyline Way in Berwick rushed to the home after they heard screams about 8pm and found the girl and her sister, aged 7, home alone.
One neighbour told how he was confronted by a giant dog "going berserk" and feared for his own safety as he tried to gain access to the house to rescue the girl.
"This dog was just going berserk. I opened the door and just saw this big frothing head coming through the door," neighbour Jimmy Baird told radio station 3AW.
The girl was taken to the Royal Children's Hospital with critical injuries to her face, neck, legs and groin.
Channel Seven is reporting that she lost an ear in the attack.
Mr Baird said the girls' parents were reportedly at the gym at the time of the attack and didn't return to the scene for about an hour.
Neighbours distracted the dog while they rescued the girl but she had already been left with injuries to her entire body.
A "beware of the dog" sign on the home's front door.
Photo: Channel Nine"The garage door was half down so we crawled into the garage. The young girl was in there screaming and the dog was attacking her sister.
"By the time we got her out, she'd been badly mauled. From her ears down to between her legs. Everywhere. She was covered."
"We knew she was in there but we couldn't get her out because [the dog] was just going berserk. It was just massive. It was shaking the whole window frame".
On Monday morning the girl was in a stable condition. It's believed the dog is a bullmastiff, a large breed.
Mr Baird told 3AW there were at least two dogs at the property but he had never seen them, only heard them.
The family dog is in the custody of a local ranger.
The family home where a girl was mauled by her pet dog on Skyline Way in Berwick.
Photo: Google Maps
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