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Two-year-old girl dies after dog attack

The Local Norway
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Two-year-old girl dies after dog attack
A toddler died having been bitten by a dog in Selbu, Trøndelag South. Photo: Henrik Sundgård / NTB scanpix

Police are hunting for clues at a dog farm in Selbu, South Trøndelag after a two-year-old girl died from multiple dog bites at the weekend.

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The victim was badly bitten by one of her family dogs on Friday. The incident happened at the toddler's home in Dragsten, Selbu. She died after surgery for her wounds on Saturday afternoon.

Local police are asking the Norwegian food control authority for help as part of their investigation into how the dogs were looked after on the farm.

Local sheriff Morten Kulseth said to NTB: "It is quite possible that someone has been there to inspect before. And if such a report exists, then we have asked for it to be sent to the police."

The authority in their report judged there was no previous history of misconduct at the farm.

The girl's mother has been under fire from strangers pinning blame on the family for the incident. She defends her version of what happened.

The mother said she was inside the house while her two-year-old and eight-year-old daughters were outside playing on a trampoline.

The eight-year-old daughter supposedly went to the dog kennel in order to give water to the dogs.The two-year-old child saw this and followed her sister. She then got inside the kennel unnoticed.

According to the older girl, her little sister fell to the ground when inside the enclosure, which holds 20 dogs, and was bitten on the throat by one of the dogs.

The mother said: "They shouted for me and I came out. I ran to my child in order to do chest compressions on her while my oldest daughter called for an ambulance.

She says that they have had the dogs for many years and that the dog kennel is built according to Norwegian safety regulations. There have been no previous incidents, the mother claimed.

She added: "No small children have ever gone alone into the enclosure. They are not allowed to do so. We have always had a high priority on safety. We have electricity on the fence where the dogs are."

"We are feeling guilty. It's so horrible. If my daughter had been bitten in an arm or a leg, this would never have been the outcome. But she was bitten on her throat."

The police are continuing investigations into the case and it is still not known whether the dog will be put to death or not.

The girl died in St. Olav's hospital, Trondheim at 3pm on Saturday.

Mayor of Selbu, Inga Johanne Balstad, said of the incident to NTB: "It is tragic and affects all of us in the local community. We are a small and tight community and now we have to take care of each other."

Balstad said that staff in the kindergartem attended by the two-year-old attended will assemble to get help coping with the tragedy.

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