A two-year-old girl was nearly left with a serious facial injury during a family day out after a dog suddenly lunged toward her face, narrowly missing her eye.

Toddler Isla Williams had bent forward to stroke the Japanese Akita during the Winterton Agricultural Show, in Lincolnshire, when the dog suddenly reacted.

Her mother Megan Lester then rushed her to hospital, where she underwent five hours of emergency treatment and careful bandaging.

Megan described the incident as ‘extremely terrifying’ and said her daughter was ‘instantly hurt’.

She explained: ‘I figured the dog would be friendly with it being at a show full of kids and surrounded by a lot of people, so I said Isla could stroke it. She was only a few yards away from me.

‘Isla is very good with dogs – we have a large Labrador, so she knows what to do and what not do.’

The family rushed Isla to the emergency tent at the show before taking her to Scunthorpe General Hospital.

She was immediately referred to a doctor and after assessing her injuries, they decided against stitches as they didn’t want them to become infected.

Megan said: ‘I can’t believe how lucky she was to get off with just bandaging on her head. She is a tough cookie and already thinks it’s better.

‘She’s amazing, she just takes it on the chin and carries on, but I was mortified. When the Akita opened its mouth, it was as big as Isla’s head.

‘If it had properly grabbed her, I don’t even want to think about what could have happened.’

The family was so shocked and desperate to get medical attention for Isla, they did not speak to the dog’s owners.

Megan says they received ‘no apology’ over what happened, with one person in the owner’s party stating that Isla ‘appeared out of nowhere’.

Isla’s father Danny Williams added: ‘Isla is doing good, she’s handled it really well.

‘She is definitely lucky to only get away with minor injuries and I think it would be good to use this to raise awareness on how dangerous some dogs can be, especially to children.

‘If you have dogs that may react unpredictably, it might not be the best idea to take them to a place where hundreds of children will be.’

Nigel Ogg, chairman of show organisers the Winterton Agricultural Society, said ‘The whole of the show committee were deeply saddened to hear about the incident on Saturday involving Isla.

‘We have never had any problems in the past with any dogs at our shows. We always have paramedics on the showground, and in fact were only metres away from the incident and we treated Isla immediately.

‘A full investigation into this will be looked into by ourselves so that nothing like this ever happens again. We wish Isla a speedy recovery.’

Source: Metro