A four-year-old girl was left seriously injured after she was attacked by a dog in Carmarthenshire.

Charis Sebastian said her daughter Rayven, who is autistic and non-verbal, was playing outside the front of the family home at on Monday evening.

She and Rayven’s father were with their daughter and the dog was “five to six feet” away from them.

Ms Sebastian told Sky News the dog “just pounced on her” and that her first thought was to cover her daughter’s face.

“That was my first instinct, grab her face. Because she’s a beautiful little girl. You see it all over the news at the moment about these dogs mauling and I grabbed her face,” she said.

Rayven sustained injuries to her upper left arm and her ribs after the dog “went to bite her twice”.

Ms Sebastian said it could have been “a massively different story”.

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“If it was one of the other children that are unaided out on that street and unsupervised, this would have been a different story,” she added.

“She has to be supervised 24/7, so she’s lucky.”

Rayven remains in hospital where she has undergone surgery to close a major wound.

The incident has been reported to Dyfed-Powys Police and enquiries are ongoing to determine the dog’s breed.

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A spokesperson for Dyfed-Powys Police said the force was called to reports of a child being bitten by a dog at around 6.15pm on Monday.

“The child was taken to hospital with serious injuries which are not deemed life threatening or life changing,” they added.

“One dog was seized and is being held at a secure kennels and the owner is supporting police with the investigation.”

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