In the latest savaging overnight on Tuesday, February 12 and Wednesday, February 13, at fields at Lenzie Road near the motorway, 20 sheep were injured, some with shocking bites to their face and body. Others had injuries to their spine and had difficulty walking.

Many of the ewes were carrying lambs and farmer Ian Warren posted on Stepps Community Facebook page: “People should see how horrific and heart breaking this actually is.

“These are young big strong ewes that are ready to lamb beginning of April. Likely now coming down with stress induced pneumonia... There’s also the worry of how many will abort their lambs.”

The field is just a couple of miles away from the location of the first attack in December when one sheep was killed and eight seriously injured at a field at Langmuirhead Road, Auchinloch,

More than 100 local people posted their shock and outrage on social media with some saying they believe it is the same dogs that carried out the attacks.

One woman said: “It’s about time the authorities sorted this out.”

Police said they have launched an investigation into the latest incident after they received a report of sheep being attacked in fields adjacent to Lenzie Road, Stepps. They said it’s believed the attacks occurred either, overnight 12- 13 February or the morning of Wednesday 13 February 2019.

Enquiries carried out so far have confirmed the sheep have been attacked by a dog, resulting in more than 20 sheep being injured.

A police spokesperson said: “Officers are appealing to anyone who may have been in the area, in particular, motorists who were travelling on Lenzie Road, Stepps, on the stretch of road which leads to the B876 and takes you into Stepps village.

“In particular, if you have dash cam footage it could have captured images which could assist our enquiries”.

If anyone has any information, please contact officers at Cumbernauld Police Station via 101, quoting incident number 1509 of 13 February.

After the first incident, Scottish SPCA superintendent Sharon Comrie said: “We received a report of a number of stray sheep in the local area on Friday morning and passed this information on to the farmer. “Sheep worrying is a serious issue and many sheep can be killed or seriously injured in the panic that being chased by dogs creates. “The consequences of a sheep worrying incident can be far reaching and leave both sheep and farmers emotionally traumatised.

“In many cases, any sheep or lamb which is caught by a dog has to be put to sleep because of their injuries.