Officers injured during vicious dog attack

Police officers were left badly injured after being bitten by a vicious dog in Wakefield, while three others were left injured during separate incidents over the weekend.

Shortly before 12 noon on Sunday a male constable and female colleague were both attacked by a Staffordshire bull terrier-type dog when attending a report of criminal damage in the Flanshaw area.

Both needed to be treated in Pinderfields hospital for bite wounds to their lower bodies.

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A 34-year-old man was arrested in connection with the incident and has now been released pending continuing enquiries.

The officers were later discharged from hospital and the dog involved was seized under the Dangerous Dogs Act. It is currently in police kennels.

But this came just hours after two female officers were assaulted in Pontefract town centre.

They had received reports of a man behaving in a drunk and disorderly fashion at around 3.20am on the Sunday.

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Both officers were subsequently injured in an alleged incident which followed.

A 24-year-old woman was arrested and later charged with assaulting police officers and drunk and disorderly behaviour.

Finally, in a third incident, a male officer sustained a leg injury while assisting a colleague making an arrest in Wakefield.

Chief Supt Mabs Hussain, district commander of Wakefield Police, has warned that injuries to police officers means the force has fewer resource with which to keep communities safe in already stretched times.

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He said: “The primary role of police officers is to protect the public and in these times of stretched police resources, if I have fewer officers available for deployment, it means I have fewer officers to send out to help those in need.

“The risk to other officers is also increased if there are fewer colleagues available to support them.

“I am pleased to say all four of my staff who were injured this weekend are recovering but the officers who were bitten in Flanshaw in particular suffered some nasty injuries.

“We will be fully supporting them through their recoveries and are continuing our enquiries into what took place.

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“Officers join the service expecting to deal with challenging situations but being attacked as a public servant should never, ever, be ‘part of the job.

“We fully support the Police Federations #protecttheprotectors campaign.”

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