A 12-year-old girl was 'torn to pieces' and partly 'eaten' by a pack of stray dogs as she walked home from school in Ukraine, it has been claimed.

Liza Kanareikina was ambushed by the animals in woodland on her daily route in the Ukrainian city of Khartsyzsk, 18 miles east of Donetsk, say police.

When she failed to return home, her parents found her mauled and dismembered body in blood-strained snow.

They found her remains ripped apart by the dogs 'as vicious as wolves', according to local reports in the rebel-held eastern Ukraine region.

Liza Kanareikina (pictured) was 'torn to pieces' and partly 'eaten' by a pack of stray dogs as she walked home from school in Ukraine

Pictures have emerged from Ukraine showing the spot where Liza's mutilated body was found

Liza Kanareikina was ambushed by the animals in woodland on her daily route in the Ukrainian city of Khartsyzsk, 18 miles east of Donetsk, say police.

Neighbour Natalia Skiba said: 'The child was walking back home and did not make it.

'She was found here in the forest, already torn to pieces.'

One local report stated that pieces of her flesh were 'literally torn off her body, the snow around was red from blood.'

Another, claiming that the girl was partly eaten by the wild strays, said: 'Police opened a criminal investigation and shot dead several dogs in order to check what was inside their stomachs.'

Local Irina Filippova said: 'Police are questioning citizens and looking for any witnesses of the tragedy.'

A neighbour of the dead girl, Dmitry Tsurkanov, said: 'I was driving by the scene and found her school bag.

One local report claimed that the 12-year-old was partly eaten by the wild strays. Pictures show some of the many stray dogs in the city

When she failed to return home, her parents found her mauled and dismembered body in blood-strained snow. Pictured: The spot where her body was found

When Liza failed to return home, her parents found her mauled and dismembered body in blood-strained snow. They found her remains ripped apart by the dogs 'as vicious as wolves', according to local reports in the rebel-held eastern Ukraine region

'I opened it and saw notebooks, textbooks, one was Russian Language for the 6th grade.'

No announcement has been made yet on the findings of forensic analysis.

'The results of forensic examination are not ready yet in the city police department,' said a report by Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper.

'So far police have refrained from comment (on the results).'

Locals are becoming deeply concerned over stray dogs abandoned in the civil war beginning in 2014 which resulted in pro-Vladimir Putin rebels seizing concern of this part of eastern Ukraine.

Police are still looking into the circumstances surrounding Liza Kanareikina's gruesome death

Neighbours said they drove past the spot (pictured) and found Liza Kanareikina's schoolbag before the her body was discovered nearby

Locals are becoming deeply concerned over stray dogs (pictured) abandoned in the civil war beginning in 2014 which resulted in pro-Vladimir Putin rebels seizing concern of this part of eastern Ukraine

Many people left the blitzed region and abandoned their pets to wander the streets (pictured)

One woman, called Galina, complained she was bitten by a stray while shopping at a local market.

Many people left the blitzed region and abandoned their pets.

Vladimir Tsimmerman, an official from the Donetsk city administration in the rebel-held region, said: 'This is one of the consequences of war. All of us understand that these dogs were abandoned and became wild.

'Now they are migrating from one town to another, and what is more sad – from time to time they attack and bite people.

'Every month we take away 50 to 100 dogs. Half are brought back with chips and sterilised. The rest are destroyed.'