An Essex Police spokeswoman said: “A woman has been arrested following an incident where a child was bitten by a dog in a property in Parker Way in Halstead”.
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The tragedy happened at a property in a residential street – Parker Way – at 5.40pm on Thursday.
Witnesses said they saw air ambulance landing at the scene yesterday after the young boy was attacked and had stopped breathing.
Following the incident, A 29-year-old man, who is the owner of the dog has been arrested and was later released on police bail pending further enquiries.
The dog has been seized by police.
An Essex Police spokesman said: “The boy, who is aged 3, was taken to hospital where he sadly died from his injuries”.
“That is when I thought I need to call the police. I looked out of the window and saw a police auto and paramedics and neighbours looking along the road”, the BBC quoted her as saying.
Shocked neighbours said they could hear “agonising screams for a good five minutes” coming from inside the house before the blood-soaked animal, thought to be a large white pitbull, emerged.
“I heard this awful screaming and thought it was kids playing in the garden, but then I thought this is going on a bit too long”.
“I heard somebody saying one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four, sounding like chest compressions”.
Neighbour Phyllis Younger, 82, says she will forever be haunted by what she heard.
She said she thinks the screams came from outside, adding: “I don’t think I would have heard it as clearly if it had been in the house”.
She added: “Now I know what the scream was, it is absolutely terrible”.
Shirley Diver, mayor of Halstead, said: “I’m shocked. We are a close-knit community, everybody knows everybody”.
She said the family involved had not lived in the street for very long and “kept themselves to themselves”.
David Ellam was out walking with his Yorkshire terrier close to his home in Huddersfield on Monday when he was attacked by another dog.
“This will be an absolute body blow to everybody in the town”. He later died in hospital.
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“There’s a huge sense of civic pride and when news like this happens in your local area it’s a real shock”.
