By Phil Coleman

Last updated at 12:07, Wednesday, 30 May 2012

Armed police were among a dozen officers sent to a Carlisle housing estate to help rescue a collapsed man who was being guarded by two large and fierce dogs.

The scene off Edgehill Road

The drama happened a short distance from the M6 motorway, in a field near Edgehill Road in Harraby, shortly after 10am yesterday.

Residents had reported a man lying in the field, but police and paramedics could not get anywhere near him because his two dogs were aggressively protecting him, growling at anybody who approached.

An ambulance crew and several police vehicles rushed to the scene. They included an armed response unit, officers with riot shields, and specialist police dog handlers.

The two boxer-type dogs that were with the man were eventually sedated, and led away by police officers.

The man was taken from the scene in handcuffs and later treated at the Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle.

Police stressed that the armed officers were called out as a precaution amid fears that the dogs could pose a risk to public safety.

Andy Wight, 45, who lives on Edgehill Road, near where the man was seen, said: “We looked out and saw all the blue lights flashing.

“Then we saw the ambulance, and the armed response unit. I was watching it all from our garden, and thought there was some kind of trouble at the new housing estate.

“We thought it was a bit more serious than it turned out to be, especially when I saw the riot shields and the armed response officers.”

A spokeswoman for Cumbria Police said: “The armed response was a precaution and would only have been used as a last resort. The dogs were initially considered to be highly dangerous and aggressive towards anybody who tried to approach the man.

“Fortunately, the officers were not needed.”

Officers were particularly concerned that the dogs could have escaped on to the nearby M6 Motorway, she said.

The spokeswoman added that the 47-year-old man who was with the dogs was taken by police to the Cumberland Infirmary.

It is not known what his medical condition was and he has not been named.

His dogs were yesterday being cared for at Carlisle’s Durranhill police HQ.

First published at 11:25, Wednesday, 30 May 2012
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk