A city park ranger was injured by a dog that broke free of its restraint.

EVERETT — A city park ranger was injured Sunday afternoon after being attacked by a pit bull.

The incident was reported just before 1 p.m. in the parking lot at Thornton A. Sullivan Park at Silver Lake.

The parking lot was packed and the ranger was approaching a motor home to ask the owner to move the vehicle to make room for more cars, Everett police officer Aaron Snell said.

As he approached, the pit bull lunged, breaking free from the restraining rope or chain, Snell said.

The ranger “suffered a serious injury,” Snell said. “When officers arrived, they felt the need to apply a tourniquet to his leg.”

The man was taken to Providence Regional Medical Center Everett. He was released Sunday night.

“He has not yet returned to work,” city spokeswoman Meghan Pembroke said. “We would typically wait until a follow-up doctor’s appointment to determine when an employee should come back to work.”

The dog has been placed in quarantine at the Everett Animal Shelter on Smith Island. The case remains under investigation by an animal control officer who, among other things, is expected to interview the dog’s owner, the victim and witnesses, Pembroke said. The investigation could take a week.

Last week, a pit bull attacked a group of Jehovah’s Witnesses missionaries in Arlington, sending four people to hospitals and leaving one of them, a woman in her 70s, with severe bites.

In that case, a male pit bull escaped a fence, lunged at the 76-year-old missionary and mauled her.

The other three missionaries tried to pry the dog off.

The owner surrendered the dog to Arlington police and, without prompting, asked officers to euthanize the animal, officials said.

Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446: stevick@heraldnet.com.