A six-year-old boy was mauled to death by four stray dogs when he tripped and fell on them in southeast Delhi’s Jamia Nagar on Tuesday afternoon.

Police said Mamoon was playing with friends in Noor Nagar when he fell on the pack of dogs sleeping on a heap of sand. As the dogs woke up and started barking, a frightened Mamoon began running. The dogs chased and attacked him, the police said.

“As the dogs attacked the child, his friends fled. The child suffered injuries to his head, neck and face. The child’s mother and neighbours, alerted by his friends, rushed to the spot from the jhuggis in Gaffar Manzil and found Mamoon bleeding profusely,” a police officer said.

“A crowd of people chased away the dogs. So, we couldn’t catch them and hand them to the civic authorities. We have begun inquest proceedings under Section 174 of the CrPC,” the officer said.

Fakhrey Alam, a resident, said the incident happened at around 11 am. “A passerby tried to chase the dogs away but failed,” he said. “The passerby then called other people and, when a crowd gathered, the dogs ran away. There were claw marks all over the child’s body,” he said.

The child was rushed to a private hospital, where he was declared dead on arrival. His body was sent to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) for a postmortem, the police said.

Meanwhile, high drama unfolded outside the Jamia Nagar police station after residents staged a protest and raised slogans against the civic authorities, demanding strict action against them. After local politicians intervened, the protesters left.

Terming the incident unfortunate, the South Delhi Municipal Corporation said its responsibility was sterilisation and rehabilitation of dogs as required by the law. “The civic body cannot catch and release dogs elsewhere. Thus, controlling such incidents is not possible,” the corporation said.

Alam claimed Tuesday’s incident was not the first in the area and that such incidents had occurred in the past too. “It is dangerous to walk in the area after dark and dogs often chase us on our way from Gaffar Manzil to Noor Nagar,” he said.

“At least 12 dog-bite incidents have occurred in recent weeks. Civic workers let go of stray dogs after sterilising them. They have to find another place,” he said.

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