A 69-year-old was left fighting for his life after an XL Bully launched an attack on him while he was taking an evening walk.

Resham Singh suffered injuries to his arms, legs, shoulder and upper thigh after being mauled by the animal in Lingfield Road, Gravesend.

He was taking a walk on Tuesday evening when the dog came up from behind and started biting him all over his body. It then dragged him across the road in his flip-flops, leaving behind a pool of blood.

The father-of-three is still in hospital and may need reconstructive surgery.

His son, Raj Dhanda, said: “My dad managed to stop him from biting his neck. The dog carved out his forearm but luckily he didn’t hit the pulse or a nerve that would have disabled his fingers.

“There were chunks of flesh on the floor, blood clots, I’ve never seen that much blood from a human before.”

Residents nearby began to appear after the attack and one tried to scare the dog away with a mop. It eventually disappeared but there was no sign of the owners.

The 40-year-old said: “We are grateful to the residents who pulled together to support my dad. They put compressions on him before the ambulance arrived.

“He was in quite a bad state. They couldn’t even put him straight into the ambulance because they needed to stabilise his wounds.”

Resham’s wife and children arrived at the scene soon after and he was taken to Medway Maritime Hospital where he has been ever since.

According to the police, the dog was identified as an XL Bully and has since been seized.

Since February 1 this year, it has been a criminal offence to own an XL Bully in England and Wales without an exemption certificate.

To get this, dog owners must pay an application fee, hold third party public liability insurance for their pets and ensure they are neutred and microchipped.

Raj, who has a dog of his own, said he never paid much attention to the ban before but now wants there to be tracking and awareness for where the XL Bully dogs are in the community and encourage people to report any dog owners walking one without a muzzle.

He said: “My dad was one bite away from being killed.

“This dog has mauled him – it’s not an exaggeration – but luckily, he survived.

“It’s traumatic, it’s shocking, it’s saddening and there’s a little bit of anger there – not towards the dog so much but more towards the people responsible.

“If the dog is this dangerous, people should be able to see where they are in their vicinity.

“My dad’s still quite fit and has fight in him but he was fighting for his life.

“We’re lucky that he’s alive but it could have so easily been worse – if that was a kid it would have been over.”

Resham, who works as a machinery driver, has since been described as “the most polite person in the world” and has already been talking about going back to work.

But his family are concerned whether he will be able to recover properly from the mental trauma of the incident.

Despite the impact of the situation, Raj says he feels “sorry for the dog” and believes the responsibility lies with owners to train their dogs and ensure they have the proper environment to be able to take care of them.

“I want to make sure the people are held to account,” he added.

The police said they were called to reports of a dog having injured a man in Lingfield Road at 8.48pm last Tuesday (July 2).

Paramedics treated one person at the scene before taking them to hospital for further treatment.

Following the incident a woman was interviewed under caution and the investigation remains ongoing.

The family of Resham thanked ambulance crews, police and medical staff who have been “great”. They are hopeful the police can charge the person responsible for the guardianship of the dog.