TERRIFIED residents fled when a Rottweiler went on the rampage - attacking one woman and five dogs.

One of the animals later had to be put to sleep because of its injuries.

Armed police were called in at 9.45am yesterday and cornered the animal in a garden in Wordsworth Close, Oswaldtwistle. But it was more than three hours before they managed to sedate it and take it to a vet for assessment while they tried to trace the owner.

The horror started in Harvey Street when Diana Whalley, of Banbury Avenue, was walking her two dogs, Rocky, a five-year-old collie and Alsation cross, and two-year-old Staffordshire bull terrier Taz.

She said: "It went for the dogs and then grabbed me round the ankle and punctured my skin. A chap came running up and I said 'Is this your dog?'

"He never said it was and just said it had slipped its lead. He made a dive for it, but missed it and it shot off up Thwaites Road."

Fifteen minutes later pensioner Jean Newton, 65, also of Banbury Road, Oswaldtwistle, was returning from walking her 11-year-old West Highland terrier, Sally, when the Rottweiler attacked.

She said: "It came from nowhere and jumped on top of her. I didn't think I could scream as loud as I did, it brought everybody out. A man stopped and he couldn't get the dog off, then another man came with a bat and hit it and got it off."

Sally was taken to the vet where she was sedated and had wounds stitched, but Mrs Newton was later told the dog would have to be put to sleep.

Mrs Newton said: "She had three broken ribs and because of her age they said they couldn't offer any hope. We hadn't cared what it would cost to make her right, but we had no choice."

Lynette Evans, of Wordsworth Close, was later called out of work at the Christian Coffee Shop, in Union Road, to news her two-year-old Jack Russell Molly had been attacked. Molly was taken to the vet after her back leg was savaged while she was in her kennel outside the house.

Lynette, 39, said: "She has had an operation and will be kept in for two nights on a drip. I'm so angry that this has happened.

"The dog should be destroyed and the owner caught and prosecuted. What if it had been a child it hurt?"

In the final incident Darren Hitchen, 32, was returning to his Thwaites Road home after taking his three-year-old pit bull terrier Diesel for his morning walk. As he came out of a ginnel in Wordsworth Close he was confronted by the Rottweiler.

He said: "It was walking up the road and police were following. Then it attacked my dog and ripped all the back of him. It wouldn't let go. I got my dog into the house as quickly as I could. I was terrified."

Sergeant John Kennedy said: "We haven't identified the dog or its owner. Our inquiries are ongoing.

"We had armed response officers at the scene but it wasn't necessary to deploy them. We dealt with it in another way."