KARACHI, Jan 31: All the 23 persons who were bitten by a mad dog in New Karachi on Thursday were provided treatment at Civil Hospital and sent home.

Some of the victims had their wounds stitched up by private medical practitioners in the same locality before they came to Civil Hospital.

The in charge of the Casualty Unit at Civil Hospital, Dr Kamal Ayubi, told Dawn that stitches of a woman and a young girl were removed by a doctor at Civil Hospital before they were given proper treatment, including anti-dogbite injections.

As many as 23 persons, including young children, were bitten by a mad dog on Thursday evening in different parts of New Karachi.

The dogbite cases began coming in the evening at Abbasi Shaheed Hospital after they were referred to the hospital by private clinics and hospitals.

All the cases were referred to Civil Hospital as anti-dogbite vaccines were not available at Abbasi Shaheed Hospital.

Dr Ayubi said the mad dog had bitten most of its victims badly.

All the victims were provided proper vaccination according to their weight, he added.

He said a girl had been bitten very badly as the dog attacked her near an eye.

After treatment, the victims were sent home with a follow-up advice, as there was no need to keep them at the hospital, Dr Ayubi said.

Quoting victims who went to Civil Hospital, sources at the hospital said the dog began attacking people around 4:30 in the evening. After 6:30pm victims began arriving at Civil Hospital.

The dog first attacked people in New Karachi near Sindhi Hotel and then in Godhra Camp and Ittehad Town.

Edhi sources said people killed the dog in sector 5-J of North Karachi.

Some of the dogbite victims were identified as Zainul Abdin, 4, and Javaria, 4, twins, Mohammed Hammad, 6, Asif Ali, 4, Isfandyar, 4, Mohammed Shakil, 4, Salman, 7, Nizam, 10, Naseem, 16, Farhan Husain, 30, Jannat Ali, 64, and Mohammed Harris.