Hyderabad, Feb 21 (IANS): In a shocking incident, a four-year-old boy was mauled to death by stray dogs in Hyderabad.

CCTV footage of the horrific incident that occurred on Sunday in Bagh Amberpet area of the city emerged on Tuesday.

The boy, Pradeep, died before his father took him to a nearby hospital.

The heart-wrenching incident occurred in a car servicing centre where the boy's father Gangadhar was working as watchman.

Sunday being a holiday, Gangadhar had taken his wife, six-year-old daughter and son Pradeep to show them his place of work. After leaving his wife and daughter in a cabin in the parking area, Gangadhar took his son into the service centre.

When Gangadhar left with another watchman to some other area for some work, Pradeep started walking towards the parking area to play with his sister. Suddenly a pack of stray dogs attacked him. When the child fell down, they all pounced on him and bit him all over.

Hearing the cries of her brother, the girl rushed there and ran out to call his father. Gangadhar chased away the dogs and took the badly injured son to a hospital but by then he had succumbed.

According to police, Gangadhar had migrated to Hyderabad from Nizamabad four years ago for livelihood and had started working as a watchman in the service centre in Amberpet area. The family was living in a colony in the same area.

This is the second such incident in Hyderabad in less than a year. In April, 2022, stray dogs mauled to death a two-year-old boy in Bada Bazar area of Golconda.

Anas Ahmed, who was playing near his house, was attacked by a pack of dogs. They dragged him to the adjoining military area.

The toddler had sustained grievous injuries and died before he could be taken to hospital.

Disturbing CCTV visuals of the hapless child being attacked and dragged by dogs had emerged, triggering public outrage.