Four-year-old boy almost blinded after being attacked by ‘gangster’ seagulls as he ate an ice cream
Leon Lu-Dexter was left with facial injuries after he was set upon on a beach
A four-year-old boy was almost blinded by “gangster” seagulls which attacked him as he ate an ice cream.
Leon Lu-Dexter was mobbed by three aggressive gulls — leaving him with a large scratch just an inch from his eye.
Dad Aaron Dexter, 36, had been helping Leon’s one-year-old sister Molly when he heard his son screaming "the seagull got me".
"It was all a bit of a blur," he said.
"I looked at my daughter - to make sure she was safe with pushchair and Leon just said - 'they got my face'.
“He had a huge red mark under his eye.
"I am not sure if it was the beak or the feet but they swooped down on him and he could have been blinded.
"They are so brazen — like little gangsters.”
The father-of-two is calling for tough action to deal with the pests who are plaguing the skies of Ilfracombe, Devon.
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Builder Aaron said the gull problem in Ilfracombe, Devon, had got worse after tourists fed the birds.
He said: “They are assaulting people.
"What would have happened if a dog had done it?
"They would have probably been put down if they attacked children - why can nothing be done to seagulls.
“I’m not saying cull them all but something needs to be done.”
The incident comes just days after Joanna Rich, 18 fell off a pier after a gull tried to steal her ice cream in St Ives, Cornwall.