A Spanish ebola victim’s pet dog was put down last night over fears it could transmit the disease, prompting outrage from animal lovers who chanted ‘murderers’ outside the woman’s home.

Fury erupted after a government health spokesman confirmed that Teresa Romero Ramos’s dog, Excalibur, had been destroyed. The official explained: ‘Unfortunately we had no other choice.’

The animal was put to sleep inside Mrs Romero Ramos’s home, which was disinfected before the animal’s body was taken away in a white van to a nearby incinerator.

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Pet: A government health spokesman confirmed Teresa Romero Ramos's dog Excalibur has been put down

Fury: A demonstrator blocking the road to stop the van transporting Excalibur is removed by a police officer, outside the housing development in which the nurse lives in Alcorcon, outside Madrid

Frenzied: A woman is helped after fainting following the exit of the van transporting Excalibur in Alcorcon, Spain

On their way: Veterinary workers wearing protective masks drive a van containing Excalibur from an apartment building

Charging the vehicle: Demonstrators run in front of policemen and in front of the van transporting Excalibur

Officers: A man is held by police in front of the van transporting the dog 'Excalibur', who has been put down

Demonstrators who mounted a vigil outside to try to stop the move shouted ‘murderers’ and several threw themselves on the ground as the vehicle left.

Some 300,000 people had already signed a petition urging authorities to spare Excalibur.

Twitter was awash with photographs of dogs, cats and birds which were posted alongside the hashtag ‘SalvemosAExcalibur’ – Spanish for ‘Let’s save Excalibur’.

Mrs Romero Ramos, 44, from Galicia in north-west Spain, who is one of the medical team that treated two repatriated Spanish priests who died from ebola, has been in quarantine since it was confirmed she was carrying the virus.

Gone: Ebola victim Teresa Romero Ramos with her beloved dog Excalibur, which authorities have put down

Emotional: Two women cry after locals and members of animal rights groups clashed with police to stop the removal and euthanasia of Excalibur

Outcry: Animal rights activists react as the van (bottom) carrying Excalibur, the dog of the Spanish nurse who contracted Ebola, leaves her apartment building in Alcorcon

Some 50 people protest against the killing of the nurse's dog outside her home in Alcorcon, outside Madrid

Animal rights activists scuffle with police as an ambulance arrives at the entrance of the apartment building of Mrs Romero Ramos

Spanish police block animal rights activists protesting outside the apartment building of Mrs Romero Ramos

She has now admitted touching her face with her gloves as she took off a protective suit after leaving the room of one of the priests.

Today I’m better. It's slow going but I’m better Teresa Romero Ramos

Mrs Romero Ramos confessed her accident to a doctor after earlier insisting that she had no idea how she became infected.

Hospital chief German Ramirez said yesterday – 48 hours after the launch of a probe into how Mrs Romero Ramos caught the virus – ‘It looks like we have found the origin.’

But the speed with which he attributed the shock transmission to a ‘slip-up’ failed to silence critics who demanded that heads rolls after a string of spectacular mistakes by health co-ordinators.

Final day of freedom: Excalibur, the dog of the Spanish nurse, barks from her balcony in Madrid, on Wednesday

Leaving: A vetenary van carrying Excalibur, the dog of Ebola-infected Spanish nurse Teresa and her husband Javier Limon, as it leaves the couple's residence

Some 50 people protest against the killing of the Spanish nurse's dog outside the Ebola infected nurse's home in Alcorcon

A worker wearing protective clothing stand outside the private residence of Teresa Romero Ramos on Wednesday

Health minister Ana Mato is facing calls for her resignation after it emerged that Mrs Romero Ramos complained of feeling unwell six days before she was eventually admitted to hospital.

Nobody ever told me to my face, "Teresa you’ve got ebola" Teresa Romero Ramos

She was rushed to hospital by unprotected paramedics in a normal ambulance only taken out of service 12 hours later and found out she had ebola by reading a Spanish newspaper website as she waited to be quarantined.

Her home in Alcorcon near Madrid that she shares with husband Javier Limon Romero, one of those quarantined at Madrid’s Carlos III Hospital, was not disinfected until yesterday morning.

Six people in total have now been quarantined since the start of Monday’s crisis.

They include three other hospital nursing staff who helped treat Miguel Pajares and Manuel Garcia Viejo, the Spanish priests who died after they were repatriated from West Africa.

Twitter is awash with photographs of dogs, cats and birds which have been posted alongside the hashtag 'SalvemosAExcalibur' – which is Spanish for 'Let's save Excalibur' - in a bid to save the Spanish 'Ebola' dog

Twitter users have been desperately posting photos of their own animals as part of a campaign to save the dog

One Twitter user even took a photograph of his pet bird for the campaign, which has been trending on Twitter

The adorable photos of the pets is part of the attempt to save Excalibur - the dog threatened with death

As well as posting photographs of dogs, some users put pictures of their cats on the social media site

Mrs Romero Ramos was reportedly feeling better after being treated with antibodies from an ebola survivor. She told a Spanish TV station by phone: ‘Today I’m better. It’s slow going but I’m better.’

Revealing how she discovered she was infected, she said: ‘Nobody told me anything.

‘I suspected something because at the beginning the nurses and doctors came in every hour, then they stopped coming in and I thought that something was up.

‘I got hold of my mobile and that’s when I saw on the website of El Pais newspaper that I had tested positive for ebola twice. Nobody ever told me to my face, “Teresa you’ve got ebola”.’

She went on to say that she had been given only 20 minutes’ training in how to put on and take off her protective suit.

Javier Limon Romero (pictured with Excalibur) had called for the dog to be saved and even tried to get ownership of his beloved bed temporarily passed over to a friend and veterinary nurse while he is in quarantine

Mixed-breed Excalibur had been scheduled to be put down after Spanish authorities got a court order to do so

Save Excalibur! The photos of pets 'asking' for the Spanish dog to be saved kept on coming overnight

Twitter users made their photographs look as though it was their pets who were calling for the dog to be saved

Some even digitally edited the photograph to include the SalvemosAExcalibur hashtag which started trending

As part of the campaign, thousands of people started sharing and tweeting this poster in a bid to save the dog

Officers with handguns stood outside the house of Teresa Romero Ramos in the suburb of Alcorcon yesterday