21 Injured After Dogs Attack School Playground

A pair of dogs set off bedlam when they entered a school playground in Willard, Missouri, and went after students, reports the Springfield News-Leader. Three students and three teachers ended up at the hospital for bites, scratches, or other injuries, and another 15 students had lesser injuries and were treated at the scene. Many of the injuries were apparently caused not by the dogs, but in the scrambling for safety that ensued after they arrived.

"I saw teachers smacking the dogs with clipboards, kicking them, and just pulling them off this one kid," one fifth-grader tells KY3. "Not all the injuries were from the dogs. Some kids were just pushed around by the flow of the kids trying to get inside." The two dogs, pit bull mixes, were euthanized. They belonged to a neighbor of the school who surrendered them to animal control officers. The incident happened Tuesday afternoon at Willard Intermediate School-South during afternoon recess. (More animal attacks stories.)