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A five-year-old boy died on Christmas Eve after being savaged by a dog.

The boy and his grandmother were house-sitting at the property in Varsity Lakes on Australia's Gold Coast and he was playing with the animal at around 11:45am when it suddenly turned on him.

The dog, reportedly an English bull-terrier American bulldog cross belonging to the homeowner, bit the lad’s neck causing massive blood loss.

His grandmother tried to intervene, sustaining minor injuries in the process, and a neighbour jumped his back garden fence in a bid to help but the boy’s injuries were too severe and he died in hospital later that day.

The name of the victim has not been released by the authorities.

A Queensland Ambulance spokesman said the boy had suffered life-threatening bites to his neck before going into cardiac arrest.

They told Daily Mail Australia the boy had been treated at the scene by Queensland's paramedics from the elite High Acuity team, who use battlefield techniques to help victims of accidents.

Gold Coast City Council animal control officers have seized two dogs from the property, and they remain in a council pound as investigations continue into the Christmas tragedy.

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In the UK, certain types of dog are banned, and it’s an offence to breed from them, offer them for sale, or even walk them in a public place without a muzzle.

They are the Pit Bull Terrier, the Japanese Tosa, the Dogo Argentino and the Fila Braziliero.

A 2021 study of fatal dog attacks in Europe during the period 1995–2016 placed the United Kingdom (with 56 fatalities) as fourth in the top five countries for number of human fatalities.

An increase in the number of serious dog attacks in the late 1980s prompted the drafting of the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991.

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