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This image of a four-year-old girl savaged in a dog attack has been shared hundreds of times on Twitter with the claim it was a boy in Sweden attacked by Muslims.

Canadian Twitter user, David G Gowing posted the pictures of Sophie Willis.

The self-proclaimed “Trump supporter” tweeted: “12 yr old Swedish boy beaten by Islamic terrorists because his eyes are blue!”

But the images in fact showed the aftermath on the attack on young Sophie, who was four at the time, when she was attacked by her family dog in 2008 in Cardiff Bay .

The tweet, which was posted early Sunday morning, has been retweeted more than 500 times and liked by more than 350 users.

But users from Wales recognised the photographs – and tried to correct Mr Gowing, without success.

A tweeter known as Bunty – who tweets as @BloodyPolitics – first posted the correction, saying: “That’s the wee 4 year old girl from Cardiff attacked by the family dog! Nothing to do with islamist terrorists.”

Bunty then began sharing her correction with users who had shared the incorrect post.

Some – like @richardoram – thanked Bunty for her correction, tweeting: “Thank you, must say I was slightly bewildered how the cuts were inflicted.”

But some, including Mr Gowing were refused to back down – even going so far as to suggest they had spoken to vets about the wounds.

“Show me the upper&lower canine teeth wounds! This child was beaten. Dogs have upper & lower teeth besides canines, where r these wounds?” he tweeted.

When asked to comment on why he continued to share the image after he was shown its origins, Mr Gowing did not reply, and blocked our reporter from seeing his tweets.

Previous tweets by Mr Gowing have included calls for people to take up arms against “islamic terrorists” and images of crusaders knights.