Chennai, Mar 10: A stray dog dragged a four-year-old girl by the hair and ripped off a chunk of her cheek in a village near Guduvanchery on Friday evening. The dog allegedly bit four other children but neither the panchayat board nor the police have confirmed it. It was later killed by villagers. The girl, who was administered an anti-rabies vaccine at a private hospital and her blood samples sent for tests, is recovering at the Institute of Child Health in Egmore.
Dhanapriya Saravanan, an LKG student in a nearby government school, was walking down a street in Valli Nagar to buy a flavoured ice stick when a large brown dog attacked her. "It jumped and pushed me down and bit my cheek," Dhanapriya said at the ICH on Saturday, running a hand across the 3-cm-long stitches along her left cheek. She also said has not been able to chew her food.
Even as the child began screaming, the dog dragged her by the hair across the road. It also bit her twice on the scalp. Shopkeepers who heard her screams did not look up thinking it was a tantrum by someone. "A biker who first noticed her, thought a dog was dragging away a dead dog, till he heard her scream," said the child's grandmother, M Kaniammal.
The man alerted a painter and the two "chased the dog away," said the child's mother Seethalakshmi. "We took her to a private hospital where doctors gave an anti-rabies injection, a tetanus injection and bandaged her wounds. But the bleeding did not stop."
An ambulance took her to the Chengalpet government hospital before she was brought to the ICH around 11pm. Doctors shaved a small portion of her scalp to stitch an opening and put stitches on her cheek.
A staff member in the dog bite ward said the rabies test results were awaited. "We have advised them to stay for 21 days," she said.
The residents of the girl's village petitioned the panchayat office against the stray dog menace. "We have contacted Blue Cross to check for rabies in other dogs and take away the ferocious ones," said executive officer Palani of the Nandivaram Guduvanchery panchayat.
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