POLICE are hunting a thug who repeatedly stamped on a dog’s head – then laughed.

The yob was seen by passers-by, dragging the frightened dog across a Hampshire road before he viciously laid into the cowering animal.

The man, thought to be in his early 20s, was with a woman, a toddler who was crying and a baby in a pushchair at the time.

Now officers, who are examining CCTV in the hope of catching the brute, are appealing for help in catching him.

The man was seen dragging the helpless animal on a lead across Nightingale Avenue in Eastleigh .

When he reached the pavement, he stopped and savagely stamped on the dog’s head at least five times.

An eyewitness said the dog – believed to be a white pitbull mastiff cross – was booted so hard, it “collapsed like a lump of meat on the floor” and then was described as “trying to walk like a spider”.

One 51-year-old woman, who got out of her car to confront the family and even followed them in an attempt to stop the cruelty, said she followed the man across Sparrow Square but lost him when he went down a track towards Woodpecker Way on the Nightingale Estate.

She said: “It was a brutal attack and I have never seen anything like it. The poor dog was crawling on its tummy. It was absolutely terrified. Its eyes were desperate.”

The woman, who did not want to be named, added: “Nobody else stopped. I said to him what are you doing? He just laughed. I was just crying my eyes out.

The dog kept looking around.

“Someone must know who he is.”

The man is described as in his 20s, about 5ft 5ins, with olive skin, very dark eyebrows and hair and spoke with a British accent. He wore a beige jacket and jeans.

The woman was about 5ft 1ins and very slim. She had her hair tied back tightly, wearing a purple top with jeans.

The incident happened at about 5pm on Friday, July 13. Anyone with any information is asked to call Eastleigh police on 101.