A dog hunt is underway in Surrey as police and animal control search for a pit bull that viciously attacked a woman Monday morning.

At about 10:20 a.m., Surrey RCMP received a report from emergency health services that a woman had been seriously injured in an apparent dog attack in the 9100-block 120th Street, in the Whalley or City Centre neighbourhood.

Police say it appears that a 65-year-old woman was walking by a convenience store in the area when she was attacked by an off-leash grey and white pit bull. The attack was unprovoked. The victim was taken to hospital to be treated for her injuries — including multiple fractures and cuts — to her forearm.

Police were canvassing the area and speaking to potential witnesses Monday afternoon, and working with the city’s animal-control office to find the dog and owner. Cops are also looking to speak with a man who fled with the dog after the attack. He's described as Caucasian, in his late 30s to early 40s, with a heavier build, wearing a black tank top, black sweat pants and a black baseball hat.

“We don’t have confirmation that that is the owner,” said Surrey RCMP spokeswoman Sgt. Alanna Dunlop. “We’re hoping someone might know something about them.” Anyone with more information is asked to contact Surrey RCMP at 604-599-0502 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS or solvecrime.ca.

It was the latest in a series of incidents involving pit bulls in Surrey. On the afternoon of June 10, four women were hurt when they tried to break up a fight between their three pit bulls, and the dogs turned on them. Emergency crews were called to a home at 113th Avenue and Loughren Drive in north Surrey, where they found the women suffering from injuries to their arms. The dogs were taken into custody by animal-control officers.

There was another incident April 8 involving a cockapoo that was mauled by a large, grey dog — according to reports, the cockapoo’s owner believed it was a pit bull — that jumped out of a vehicle near the intersection of 134th Street and 80th Avenue.

Four days earlier, a nine-year-old girl was taken to hospital after being bitten on her abdomen by a pit bull outside of her family's home in Surrey. The dog belonged to the family's landlord.

The attack in Surrey comes just days after Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre said that the city’s animal control bylaws will be rewritten in the fall to ban pit bulls. Under the amended bylaws no new pit bull dogs will not be permitted in the city. Existing dogs will be required to be sterilized and when they are in public they will have to be muzzled.

On June 8, a 55-year-old woman was found mauled to death by her neighbour’s pit bull and on June 14 a woman was attacked by her friend’s pit bull and suffered leg injuries.

Ontario banned the breeding and importation of pit bulls in 2005.