“MY FACE was hanging off.”

Those are the words of a Hampshire woman who suffered horrific injuries when she was “nearly mauled to death”.

Sharyn Randall had been taking her pet Staffordshire terrier, Dappa, for a walk when she saw the American pitbull standing in the middle of Westridge Road.

Walking on the other side of the road she soon quickly found the dog coming towards them and feared for Dappa’s life.

She said: “I spotted him stood in the road. I just sensed that it would go [for Dappa]. I had this gut feeling.”

With her dog on a lead she picked up Dappa to protect him she said Dappa started “screeching” as the other dog started going for him.

The St Denys woman said that Dappa was not provoking the pitbull which she had never seen before.

After she screamed for help another woman came running to help and grabbed the pitbull.

Sharyn then ran into a nearby garden in Westridge Road and put the dog on top of a wheelie bin.

But within moments the pitbull was lunging for Sharyn and went straight for her face.

“I got behind the bins. The woman, she had to let the dog go, and he came round and grabbed me on the jaw” the mum-of three said.

“I was screaming, I was fighting for my life because I thought I was going to die.

“It had locked on to my mouth and my face was hanging off.”

Moments later the dog was pulled off Sharyn although in the panic of moment she can’t remember how or by who.

She said: “If it had been an inch lower it would have been my neck.”

The community care assistant lost two of her teeth in the horrific attack and suffered horrific injuries to her face.

The images of her injuries are so graphic that the Daily Echo will not show them.

She then spent five days in Salisbury hospital undergoing extensive plastic surgery at Salisbury’s Odstock Hospital to rebuild her face.

However she has also suffered injuries to her finger and struggled to eat and drink.

She said: “The plastic surgeons have done an amazing job, I am amazed by what they have done.”

The incident happened days before a murder in Westridge Road but a spokesperson from Hampshire police said the two incidents are not linked.

Hampshire police confirmed that the dog has been seized since the attack but that no arrests have been made and an investigation is ongoing.

But Sharyn has suffered psychological scars as well as physical ones.

She said she has been suffering “anxiety attacks and I have been getting really tight in my chest and I have scars on my legs, chin and a fractured finger.

“I am a nervous wreck.”