People said my son was dead after a suspected XL Bully attack - luckily he was saved

The family of a 12-year-old boy mauled by a suspected XL bully dog as he rode his bike feared he had died during the attack.

Mohid Gardazee needed over three hours of surgery on his right arm after the out-of-control mutt tore into his wrist on Sunday.

He had been cycling along Villa Road, close to his home in Oldham, Greater Manchester when he was pounced on.

And his dad, Ahmad Gardazee, 52, said his neighbours had ‘risked their lives’ to stop the dog from carrying out further damage.

Armed officers and a dog unit from Greater Manchester Police arrived at the scene at 11.23am where they ‘safely detained’ the mutt.

But when dad-of-three Ahmad first rushed to the street, he heard shocking rumours that Mohid may have succumbed to his injuries.

The accountant said: “People were saying the boy was dead. But luckily, luckily he survived.

“It was traumatic. It was really hard for me to kind of keep calm.

“I was thinking, ‘It could be my fault’. All those things go through your mind – how is he going to do in the future with his right arm?

“My wife was crying, my daughter was crying. But we are very thankful to our neighbours who called the police and the ambulance.

“When we knew he was alive, we relaxed.”

Ahmad said he had not been present when the attack took place on Sunday and only found out in the minutes that followed.

And he was prevented from seeing his injured son just after as the dog was still on the loose.

Ahmad said Mohid was treated by paramedics before being rushed to Royal Manchester Children's Hospital where he endured hours of painful surgery.

But thankfully, he said doctors were able to save his arm and close up most of his wounds.

Ahmad said: “I was somewhere else, and my wife phoned me. When I came over, I was not allowed to go into that scene because police had cordoned off the area.

“At that time, the dog was loose, so they were trying to catch the dog. It was an XL Bully, my son said.

“He then had three-and-a-half hours of surgery yesterday. They tried to clean his wound and stitch as many as they could, but they couldn’t close all of them.

“And then they did a bandage and put a cast on him, and they said they’re going to open it on Thursday or Friday to see if it’s healing

“If they can close the other two wounds, they will try and if not, they might do the skin graft on it.

Ahmad added: “He was lucky enough that his nerves were probably saved. But it will take some time to recover back.

"I would like to thank my neighbours for the help they provided and the hospital."

Greater Manchester Police said on Monday, October 23, that a 43-year-old woman had been charged with two counts of being in charge of a dog dangerously out of control, causing injury.

She is due to appear at Tameside Magistrates Court.