A man who rescued a young girl from a dog attack in south-east London has told the BBC he “acted on instinct” to save children being attacked by a dog.

McArthur Okorocha was arriving home from a night shift on Saturday morning to his home in St Paul’s Cray, Orpington, when he heard “a lot of screaming” from a house across the road.

“I saw them opening the door slowly and a woman was shouting for the little girl to get out and run – I then saw two dogs biting her from behind,” he said.

Two children, aged four and six, were taken to hospital and sustained non-life threatening injuries in the attack. A woman, 30, has been arrested and the dogs are in police kennels.

Mr Okorocha said after he saw the girl being bitten, “a lot of adrenaline kicked in” and he ran over to pick her up to get her away from them.

Two more dogs came out, he said, and a young boy was also being bitten.

“I grabbed the little girl and carried her with one arm and then I tried to grab the little boy as the dogs started focusing on him,” he said.

“What was going through my head is ‘I have to get this girl or else it will be critical’.”

He told BBC London the dogs then returned their attention to the girl in his arms so he wanted to get her to safety and call the police.

“I got the girl inside my house and got her secured safely and waited for a little bit for the dogs to disperse,” he added.

Following this, he went to check on the boy but he had been taken to safety into a car.

Mr Okorocha said the children had been left shaken up and there was “blood everywhere” with scratches on them.

He said the dogs, which he described as a big mixed breed, had left the area but were later found by an armed team who gained control of them.

The Met’s Supt Mitch Carr said: “I know this incident will have caused a lot of public concern, especially due to the young age of the children injured.

“Fortunately, it is believed that none of the injuries are life-threatening.

He said a woman has been arrested on suspicion of having dogs dangerously out of control.

“The dogs have also been taken to police kennels while the investigation is ongoing,” Supt Carr added.

Mr Okorocha said he didn’t get much sleep after his night shift, adding: “You gotta do, what you gotta do.”

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