A POLICE dog attacked three children, chasing them through the streets and biting them, after it escaped from its handler's home.
The highly trained dog, which broke free from the officer's home in Musselburgh, East Lothian, and bit the children who were playing football nearby, may now have to be destroyed.
Although none of the children was seriously injured, Lothian and Borders Police has issued an apology and accepted that the large alsatian dog caused extreme alarm to the youngsters.
No details have been released by Lothian and Borders Police about the dog, which has been held at the force's headquarters in Edinburgh to await its fate.
The children were left terrified after the dog charged at them and started biting them as they played football.
A police spokesman said the trained dog was "only playing" during the attack - which saw the young boys chased through the streets and bitten.
The dog managed to break free from kennels at the home of its police officer handler and started charging towards a group of boys aged nine and 13 who were playing football nearby. The children fled as the dog ran towards them, sparking a chase which saw two nine-year-olds bitten and another's clothes ripped by the alsatian.
Police said that the dog has not yet returned to duty, and is being investigated by a dog behaviour expert. One option under consideration is to put the dog down.
A police source said: "They are basically trained to chase after anything that runs; that's why it'll have gone after the boys.
"But if it really meant business it would have done some real damage to children that size. Luckily, it probably just thought it was a training exercise and didn't bite them too hard.
"But obviously this doesn't make it any less alarming for these children; they can't tell the difference between the dog just being excitable and it chasing them for real and would understandably have been terrified.
"We don't know how it managed to escape yet, but it is still being tested by the dog specialist to see if it can go back to work."
The police spokesman said that the dog may have seen the football game as encouragement to join in.
He said: "This type of dog is trained to react to situations and we very much regret and apologise for this particular incident.
"Fortunately, as the dog thought it was playing it did not inflict any serious injuries on the children.
"We have visited the families involved and offered our profound apologies to them and the children. This is also extended to the local community."
But one neighbour said: "We were shocked and dismayed when we heard this had happened. The whole incident has divided a very happy street."
The families involved in the attack, which took place last Wednesday, have declined to comment on their ordeal.
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