It was in Vregille, a small town in Haute-Saône, that a mother accompanied by her two young children was attacked by a two-year-old Malinois dog late Thursday afternoon.
“She and one of her two children were seriously injured,” indicated the Departmental Fire and Rescue Service in Vesoul.
A police source adds that one of the two children, aged five, had his right ear torn off and was bitten on the left ear.
His brother was unhurt.
The mother was bitten on the calf and forearm.
The two victims, the mother and her son, were hospitalized at Besançon hospital, France 3 Bourgogne-Franche-Comté learned.
At the same time, the gendarmerie opened an investigation.
According to the police, the Malinois belonged to the family's neighbor who had taken her two dogs out without keeping them on a leash.
She presented herself spontaneously to the police during the rescue operations.
The dog involved in the attack suffered a fatal cardiac arrest an hour after the incident, according to firefighters.
The dangerousness of this breed of dog of Belgian origin frequently used by law enforcement is often questioned.
In 2020, a two-year-old girl died in Charente-Maritime after being bitten by a Malinois.