Two simultaneous dog attacks in Lewisham have left a cat for dead and a dog in a life-threatening condition.

Rebecca Hussey, 46, of Winsford Road, Catford, had just collected her eight-year-old dog Santa from its second chemotherapy session in Surrey on Wednesday.

Mrs Hussey said the sessions can leave her dog, which had her front right leg amputated after being diagnosed with bone cancer in August, with an upset stomach, so she took her pet to Bellingham Play Park to go to the toilet.

She said: “We got to the entrance of the park and saw a dog running towards us and the guy seemed to be chasing his dog so I am 100 percent certain that he thought his dog was going to attack us, and it did.

“The bloke was punching and kicking his dog off Santa and hitting it with a metal lead and my dog was screaming. The dog just wouldn’t get off Santa.”

Mrs Hussey said the two minute attack felt like it went on for a lifetime.

She said: “Santa was just lying on the floor screaming and I was screaming too, the neighbours heard all the noise and said they thought it was foxes, but then they realised what had happened and tried to help us.

“I was terrified and I never knew I could ever scream so loud. I have never been so scared in my whole life.”

Mrs Hussey, who has been using the park for 21 years, said the owner of the pit bull terrier was apologetic however, Santa has been left in a critical condition with muscle damage, bite marks and an open wound on her chest.

Meanwhile, in Sydenham a 38-year-old woman’s cat was killed in a vicious attack outside her front door.

Gabrielle Boyle, of Queensthorpe Road, had invited her dad over for dinner and was speaking to him outside her house when her two-year-old cat Panda walked out the door and around the corner.

Ms Boyle said she heard a screech and began to run to her pet thinking another cat may have hurt him.

But when she heard a man’s voice repeatedly shouting ‘Drop it!’ to her horror she found her cat had been the victim of a brutal attack.

She said: “It was the most horrific and barbaric thing I have ever seen. My cat was still alive in the dog’s mouth and its stomach was ripped open.

“The owner was kicking the dog and smacking it on the head but it just wouldn’t let my cat go. It took a really long time for my cat to die.”

Ms Boyle said the owner had the dog off its lead at the time of the incident.

She said: “I’m devastated. Every time I close my eyes I keep seeing Panda’s little face. It just doesn’t feel real.

“Even my neighbours who saw it happen have said that even through the cat wasn’t theirs they haven’t been able to sleep either.”

Ms Boyle said she is afraid to let her other two cats outside following Wednesday’s attack.