A 67-year-old woman mauled to death by two pit bulls at a home in Greenwood Park in Durban had screamed for her neighbours in the hope they could save her.

Despite their desperate efforts to cut their way through a driveway gate‚ the elderly woman - whose name has not been released - took her last breath just metres from them at the Heather Grove Road home.

Neighbour George Samuels told TimesLIVE that he’d received a phone call from his mother alerting him to the emergency.

“She called me and said it sounded like a woman was screaming… like she was being attacked by the dogs. She called the police and the paramedics and everyone.

“When I got here the woman was lying by the gate and I think by that time the dogs had moved around the back [of the property]. I got a hacksaw and with the paramedics started trying to cut the gate to get to her when the guy who owns the property got back‚” he said.

“This is terrible… that woman used to stay in the house before and I think she came back to look after her grandchildren‚” he added.

Marshall Security spokesman Kyle van Reenen said that security officers and paramedics had rushed to the scene and found the woman lying in the driveway.

“Reports indicate that the woman was attacked by two pit bulls and suffered fatal injuries. Unfortunately there was nothing paramedics could do to assist the lady and she was declared deceased on arrival‚” he said.

The woman was understood to have sustained severe injuries to her upper and lower body.

“The scene was secured and handed over to the South African Police Services for further investigation and processing.”

Police spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Thulani Zwane confirmed that officers were investigating the incident.