A TEENAGER was horrifically injured when a pair of savage dogs attacked him.

Two police officers were forced to use Taser stun guns to free Daniel Boardman, 19, from the jaws of the ‘ferocious’ animals.

Sixty police in riot gear, armed officers and a specialist from a zoo – trained in tranquilising lions – were then involved in a 30-hour operation to get the dogs out of the house in Rishton.

Mr Boardman has been left with what police have described as ‘life-changing’ injuries with bites to his arms, legs and buttocks.

The severe bites to his limbs, particularly on his arm, are down to his tendons and bone and will require major surgery.

Mr Boardman had been looking after a friend’s pets ‘Coco’ and ‘Dekker’ when they turned on him at his home in Sands Road.

The dogs’ owner, Mark Rowland, 24, from Baxenden, was arrested on suspicion of possessing a banned dog and has been bailed pending further inquiries.

His mobile phone was seized by police.

The drama began at 9am on Monday when Mr Boardman called an ambulance to say he was being attacked.

Armed response officers Sergeant Mark Pass and PC Martin Wyatt were sent to the scene and saw the victim being mauled and pulled in opposite directions by each dog.

They broke down the door and used their stun guns to repel the dogs and drag Mr Boardman to safety.

But because of the danger the dogs posed to police officers, they were left in the boarded-up house for 24 hours with a police guard outside.

At 10am yesterday, several police support units with riot gear, armed police, the RSPCA, and a specially-trained vet from a zoo in Cumbria arrived at the scene.

With the dogs ‘roaming’ through the house, officers were not sent into the premises for their own safety, but began trying to lure the dogs out of the open back door into the rear yard.

Two marksmen on ladders were poised with guns as officers tried a variety of tactics.

The dogs were called by their names, whistled for and, at one point, dog food was thrown over the wall into the yard.

One officer had a long clothes prop and another used a yellow ball to try to get their attention.

As they did, another officer was waiting with wire attached to the back door to close it once the dogs were out.

At the front door was a pile of bloodied tissues and used plastic gloves.

Through the downstairs front room window a large empty metal dog cage was visible and the doorframe was covered in bloody smears.

But after two hours, the dogs had not been drawn out.

Officers with padded ‘dog suits’ went in through the front door with the animals trapped in an upstairs front bedroom.

An officer stood on a ladder borrowed from a neighbour and banged on the window to distract them.

At 1.30pm a panel in the bedroom door was removed and the vet shot each dog with a tranquiliser dart.

They were then both given a lethal injection.

The dead dogs were finally brought out around 2.10pm.

Chief Superintendent Bob Eastwood praised Sgt Pass and PC Wyatt: “Both officers were confronted with a difficult situation in which a young man was being subjected to a ferocious attack by two large and dangerously out of control dogs.

“I applaud their bravery and it is thanks to the quick and decisive action of these two officers that this man was saved from even further serious injury.”

Police inquiries to establish the breed of the dogs may take several weeks.

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