A MOTHER whose two dogs mauled a young girl today pleaded for them not to be destroyed and claimed: "My dogs are not dangerous."

Emma Clemence's Staffordshire Bull Terriers, Bruno and Cinders, had to be pulled off the girl by passers-by in Dickens Street, Blackburn.

She said the dogs escaped from her home after a visitor left the front door open.

Samina Talaty, 11, who also lives in Dickens Street, needed hospital treatment after the attack and her father Umar has called for the dogs to be destroyed.

And police are now considering a criminal prosecution under the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991 - which could lead to the dogs being put down.

But Ms Clemence, 21, said: "They are making out my dogs are vicious - but they aren't.

"I think the little girl panicked because she was not used to dogs and they reacted to that."

She said she was in her back garden at the time of the incident and had no idea what was happening. Heroes Zahid Varachhia, of Sidco Mini Market, in Walter Street, and Sajid Mahmood, of Copperfield Street, had to kick the dogs away after intervening.

Ms Clemence said: "I am very sorry about what happened to the little girl and I feel awful about it, but I am upset as well and I can't change it.

"My uncle went to see the family because he knows the little girl's father, so it's not like we don't care about what happened."

The dogs live with their owner and her children - Dion, four, and one-year-old twins, Jack and Jordan - and she claims they have always been well behaved in the past. "My children love playing with the dogs and they have never been bitten them," she said.

The courts have the power to destroy the dogs if they feel they are a danger to public safety but can allow them a chance to be retrained after a first offence.

Ms Clemence added: "I don't want them to be put down. This is the first time anything like this has happened so I don't think there is any need to destroy them."