Armed police scrambled and residents ordered to stay inside homes as dog escapes and bites neighbour

Residents on a quiet street in Stalybridge were ordered to stay in their homes by police hunting for an escaped dog after it bit a neighbour.

Several police cars, including an armed response unit, attended Shakespeare Avenue in Millbrook at around 4pm yesterday (October 13), where they attempted to catch a dog, believed to be a cane corso, which was on the loose.

Neighbours told the Manchester Evening News that they had witnessed police attempt to immobilise the animal by tasering it, but it “still ran off up the road”.

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“There was another policeman at the end of the road shouting at people to stay in their houses – he shouted at us to stay in our car,” the neighbour said.

“More police cars turned up, the dog handlers and firearms. After about an hour they caught the dog with poles and put it into the van. It took a good two hours – why so long?”

The dog was subsequently taken away and is believed to have been put down, the Manchester Evening News understands.

It is believed to have belonged to a resident of the street, who had left the animal tied up in the garden while they had gone out. But residents claimed it wasn’t the first time it had escaped.

“This dog’s been running out of the garden and barking at people for a couple of weeks now,” claimed another neighbour.

“It’s quite a big dog and I’ve got young children – it gets us a bit worried about our little one. The dog goes out loose at night and you can hear it running around and barking at people – a deep, booming bark,” they added.

Other neighbours, who said they did not wish to comment, added only that it was “a really nice