The wife of dog attack victim Keith Chadwick has told how he ‘thought he was going to die’.

Kelly Chadwick said her husband is ‘very lucky to be alive’ and will be left permanently scarred for the rest of his life.

Postman Keith, 36, suffered severe face and leg injuries during the terrifying incident on Fife Street in Accrington at around 8.25pm on Tuesday, and underwent four hours of surgery at Royal Blackburn Hospital on Wednesday night.

Kelly, 34, said the incident has been an ‘absolute nightmare’ and he will have to live with the injuries ‘for the rest of his life’.

The mum-of-three said: “He said to me ‘I thought I was going to die, I thought I was gone’.

“We have been together as a family for a long time and in all that time we have never had anything like this.

“He will have a permanent scar from his eyebrow to his nose and we don’t know about skin grafts yet.

“He’s going to have to live with this for the rest of his life and the children will have to see it too.

“He was an absolute mess. I have never seen anything like it in my entire life. It proper shocked me.”

Kelly, who works as a customer service and sales team leader at Bensons for Beds based at Huncoat Industrial Estate, has told of the shocking moment the dogs attacked him and was witness by two of her young daughters.

She said: “I could hear him shouting ‘get the dogs off my face’. The dogs had got hold of his knee in a locked jaw.

“That’s when my girls came out and I quickly got them inside. I was very concerned the dogs would go for them. I was quite hysterical at this point.

“I phoned my mum straight away screaming for them to help me and the kids. We just can’t comprehend everything that’s happened.”

Kelly, who has been together with Keith for 18 years and married for eight years, said he will remain in hospital for the next 48 hours to check and prevent infection and could need future cosmetic surgery.

She said: “He’s out of surgery and was in there for about four hours last night with the face and orthopedic surgeons. The facial injury goes from the top of his eyebrow down to his nose.

“Because it is so close to his eyelid they can’t do much more. He will probably have a droopy eye.

“He has not been able to walk since this happened as he’s had physiotherapy today to help him to walk on crutches. His knee is really swollen and he can’t put any weight on it at all.

“There is no actual muscle or tissue damage so he is extremely lucky there.

“The doctors and surgeons said, even though we don’t feel it, he is very lucky. It’s just been an absolute nightmare.”

Lancashire Police Inspector John Fryer said: “This was a very nasty incident where a man on Fife Street was bitten by two Staffordshire bull terriers.

“He was bitten on the face, leg and side of the body and the injuries are quite nasty.

“He is in hospital now and is going to need surgery.”

A man from Accrington was arrested on suspicion of having a dog dangerously out of control in a public place and has been bailed until May 11.

Two dogs have been seized by police.