A woman has had her arm bitten off in a horrifying dog attack in Queensland. 

The woman, aged in her 30s, was attacked at a home on Lonerganne Street in the Townsville suburb of Garbutt shortly after 7am on Friday. 

Paramedics discovered the woman had a severed forearm, with her injuries described as potentially life-threatening. 

Police officers had to shoot the dog in order to save her.  

The woman’s arm was recovered and it was hoped surgeons would be able to reattach it. 

A neighbour, who described the dog as a ‘mongrel pitbull mix’, said it attacked its owner after another neighbour arrived at her house. 

‘The dog got riled up at the neighbour and she put her arm out to bring him back, that’s when he got her arm,’ she told the Courier Mail. 

‘Her arm’s off from under the elbow.’

Resident Corey Geesu said he was attacked by the same dog two weeks ago and spent multiple nights in hospital as a result. 

Mr Geesu has been left with several large scars over his right forearm, and believed the dangerous dog should have been taken away earlier. 

He said it was lucky the dog had not attacked any children. 

Queensland Police District Duty Officer Senior Sergeant Scot Warrick said a tourniquet that was wrapped around the woman’s arm ‘might have saved her life’.

‘It was a very severe, very catastrophic injury,’ he said.

The sergeant added police had ‘no choice’ but to euthanise the pitbull.

‘I’ve been a police officer 37 years, this is the first time I’ve seen something like this severe,’ he said.

The Townsville attack came a day after a woman was attacked by three dogs – two American bulldogs and a pitbull – at her home in Dandenong in Melbourne’s outer east.

Police attempted to stop the attack by using capsicum spray on the animals but the dogs continued mauling the woman, aged in her 20s, and had to be shot dead.

Emergency services were called to the house on Ross Street just before 10am on Thursday.

Paramedics rushed the woman to hospital in a critical condition. 

A neighbour who lives on the same street said there were five dogs in total at the government housing property.

‘I was just walking home and there was lots of yelling and screaming,’ the neighbour told Daily Mail Australia.

‘Then police came and you just heard gunshots. I saw the lady getting put into the ambulance and she was in a very bad way.’

He claimed the remaining dogs at the property are aggressive and added he felt nervous walking his own dog past the house. 

Police have launched an investigation into the attack.