AN 11-YEAR-OLD girl had to have surgery following an attack by a dog in Newport.

Now mother Claire Marshall wants the dog she claims attacked her daughter Courtney Nurden destroyed.

Courtney was bitten when she was in a friend’s garden in Duffryn on June 18, according to Ms Marshall, 37.

Ms Marshall said Courtney was sitting on a bench when her friend went into the house to get food.

“The dog came up to her and launched at her face,” she said. “She hit the ground and screamed.”

Courtney’s friend grappled with the dog, said by Ms Marshall to be a Rottweiler, and kicked him away.

She ran straight to her home in Kestrel Way, Duffryn, where an ambulance was called.

The attack left her with puncture wounds and cuts to her face, Courtney’s mother said.

A paramedic called for the police, but Ms Marshall said police told her that there was no way they could put the dog down because the incident happened on private property.

At the Royal Gwent Hospital Courtney’s wounds were cleaned with iodine, Ms Marshall said, and a specialist doctor stitched up the wound.

She was sent home, but an infection developed and Courtney was re-admitted to hospital last Wednesday.

Ms Marshall said her daughter underwent surgery late on Friday night to open the wound and clean it out.

She claimed her daughter had lost feeling in the top of her jaw as a result of the bite.

Courtney’s mum told the Argus she wanted the dog destroyed: “If a person harms another person they go to prison for it.”

The Welsh Ambulance Service control room said an ambulance took an 11-year-old, who was bitten by a dog, from Kestrel Way to the Royal Gwent Hospital at around 4.50pm on June 18.

Gwent police were unable to confirm to the Argus whether they had received a report of the incident.

The Argus also tried to contact the alleged owners of the dog without success.