Schoolgirl mauled, eaten by stray dogs in Ukraine

The poignance of this distressing incident will not just fill you with sadness, but also evoke a seething indignation.

Liza Kanareikina, aged 12, was returning home from her school when a pack of stray dogs mauled her to death in the most gruesome way one can imagine. The dogs - vicious as wolves - torn her to pieces and ripped her apart. She was literally eaten by the ferocious beasts, media reports say. Her notebooks and textbooks were found strewn near her school bag by a neighbour.

The grade 6 girl used to take the route through woodland in the Ukrainian city of Khartsyzsk, 18 miles east of Donetsk in Ukraine, say police. It was along the daily route that she was ambushed and pounced upon by the dogs. Her dismembered body was found in blood-stained snow, say reports.

Police have opened a criminal investigation and shot dead several dogs to check what was inside their stomachs, a local report points out. They are yet to find any witnesses of the tragedy.

"The results of forensic examination are not ready yet in the city police department," said a report by Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper. "So far police have refrained from comment (on the results)."

The civil war, which started in 2014, has left a trail of devastation in Donetsk, which is held by pro-Vladimir Putin rebels. And dogs abandoned by fleeing residents - which have turned into wild strays - are one of the least documented fallouts of the conflict. 

Vladimir Tsimmerman, an official from the Donetsk city administration in the rebel-held region, was quoted as saying in the report: "This is one of the consequences of war. All of us understand that these dogs were abandoned and became wild. Now they are migrating from one town to another, and what is more sad - from time to time they attack and bite people. Every month we take away 50 to 100 dogs. Half are brought back with chips and sterilised. The rest are destroyed."