A dog owner was mauled to death by her own pets after they turned on her while she was “wrestling” with them.

Neighbours rushed to fend off the two dogs as they bit down on Nancy Cherryl Burgess-Dismuke’s arms outside her mobile home in Greenville, South Carolina, on Thursday.

The 52-year-old suffered a number of serious dog bites and died in hospital about nine hours later.

Amber Greer, who witnessed the incident and called 911, told The Greenville News it went from looking like she was playing with the dogs, described as boxer mixes, to the pets “eating her alive”.

Another resident told the paper Ms Burgess-Dismuke had put her arms in her dogs’ mouths while playing with them in the past.

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The Grenville News reported that one neighbour grabbed an axe while another picked up a car part before they began hitting the dogs to free their owner.

Ms Burgess-Dismuke reportedly managed to escape by jumping over a fence.

Lieutenant Ryan Flood, spokesman for Grenville Sheriff’s Office, said Ms Burgess-Dismuke suffered severe injuries in a statement to The Grenville News.

He added that a preliminary investigation showed she had been “wrestling” with the two dogs in her front yard when they became aggressive.

Senior Deputy Coroner Kent Dill told The Washington Post that the woman was alert and talking with paramedics when they arrived on scene but went into cardiac arrest once in hospital.

Greenville County Animal Control is said to have taken the dogs away from the scene.