A 10-year-old girl sustained deep bite wounds to her arm after two pit bulls attacked her, another child and a woman in the front yard of a Nanaimo, B.C. home.

The dogs have since been located and euthanized, according to Nanaimo RCMP.

"It could have been so much worse and we're just extremely lucky that it wasn't," said Dave Skarbo, the girl's father.

The unleashed dogs attacked as a group of three children were playing in a front yard.

A neighbour tried to beat them away with a hockey stick. The animals then attacked a woman who tried to intervene, biting her in the arm.

Owner picked up dogs and drove away

According to witnesses, one of the dog's owners showed up and put the animals in the car and drove away without offering to help.

Bystanders reported the licence plate number to police.

The city's Animal Control Services later seized the dogs, which, according to neighbours, had been the subject of previous complaints.

"I'm angry that the police and animal control were aware of this owner, were aware of the dogs," said Cathy Torney, mother to two of the children who were playing in the yard.

"There have been many complaints. There have been other incidents and still their hands were tied until something like this happened."

Barbara Andrews, one of the owners of the dogs, says the eight-month-old pit bulls had been good family pets. She admitted the dogs had been ticketed for being at large the day before the attacks.