A FATHER-OF-TWO was savaged by a dog as he tried to settle a neighbourhood dispute.

Michael Hall, 47, had his arm bitten to the bone by a bull mastiff as he tried to settle an argument for a friend.

Speaking at the weekend, he said: "It had a hold of my arm and it was trying to pull me down.

"If it had got me on the floor, it would have killed me.

"I think it was just the adrenaline running through me that made me able to push it off."

Mr Hall, a self-employed plasterer from Newbiggin Hall, Newcastle, had been trying to resolve a dispute for his friend on Wednesday.

But, as he and a man argued over the garden fence, the dog attacked him.

He said: "It jumped up and grabbed my arm and then bit me on my side and my thigh."

He managed to push the dog away and spent three days in hospital following the incident.

His injured arm is now in a plaster cast, with metal pins to hold his arm in place in the hope his damaged nerves will heal.

He said: "I feel really lucky If that had been my neck, not my arm, I would have been dead.

"At one stage, I did think I was going to die.

"I just keep thinking it could have killed me. If the dog had done that to a child, it would not have stood a chance."

A police spokeswoman said: "We have been notified by the hospital that Michael Hall had been bitten by a dog.

"He has been spoken to, but does not want to give any further details."