Toddler Attacked by Coyote in Irvine

A six-year-old boy was attacked by a coyote in Irvine’s Springbrook Park last Sunday and suffered minor cuts, bites and scratches on his arm.

The attack was one of several similar incidents in the last month that have left authorities calling the region a “hot spot” for coyotes.

“I wasn’t expecting coyotes to attack kids,” Waleed Qazi, the man who chased the coyote away from the sandbox where the six-year-old had been grabbed and dragged three feet before the coyote let him go, told the Orange County Register. Qazi added, “I thought they were after foxes and rabbits and they don’t bother with humans.”

The toddler had reportedly been playing across from his father in the sandbox of the playground when the coyote attacked around 7 p.m. The playground is located near the apartment complex where he and several other families with small children his age live in Irvine’s Woodbridge community.

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