Police raid children's birthday party

Police in Abbotsford, B.C. raided a house and shot a dog that attacked them - while a children's birthday party was in progress.

Witnesses say police officers, dressed in black and wearing hoods, burst into the house. The family's pit bull dog then lunged at one of the officers and bit his sleeve.

A second officer then shot and killed the dog, splattering blood on a nearby infant.

"It was instant screaming," says Jason Rowsom, one of the parents present. "It was mayhem. My seven-year-old daughter dove over the end table and behind the couch and was screaming in the corner."

Rowson also says police beat some of the adult partygoers.

Police say they didn't know children were in the house. The heavily-armed Emergency Response Team was used, a spokesman says, because drugs and weapons were found when the house was raided in November.

"It's regrettable that it happened on a birthday," Constable Dale Cresswell of the Abbotsford police said on Tuesday.

"Had we known this (party) was going on we wouldn't have made the entry," he said.

He said police confiscated a number of drugs, including marijuana and so-called magic mushrooms.