A PET cat has been targeted in a sickening attack - by having boiling hot water poured over its head and back.

The female feline, which belongs to a Poole resident and nearly died after the incident, needed emergency treatment for serious burns and severe pain.

Now its elderly owner, who lives in Foxholes Road, Oakdale, has been left facing an anxious wait to see if her pet- which was attacked on Friday 13th - makes a full recovery.

It is also understood the cost of the treatment is likely to be around £2,000.

Initially it was feared some kind of corrosive liquid had been poured over the cat’s back, but a vet later determined it was more likely boiling water, quite possibly from a kettle.

Police Community Support Officer Jez Cobley, of Dorset Police’s Oakdale Neighbourhood Policing Team, told the Daily Echo: “We were called by the lady owner. We need to catch who has done this. It was completely unprovoked, a cat cannot really defend itself.

“The burns were so severe. Someone has basically just poured a kettle of water over this cat, I don’t think it would have made it if it hadn’t have been taken to the vets so quickly.

“I’ve been a police community support officer since last June and I haven’t come across anything like this before. Even asking my colleagues, they haven’t come across anything like it either.

“It is just a vicious thing, a one off. I mean, what did the cat do to them?”

Witnesses or anyone with any information should call Dorset Police on the non-emergency 101 number, quoting incident number 18:305.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for the RSPCA said: “People are understandably outraged at allegations of such horrific acts of animal cruelty.

“We encourage anyone with information about this particular incident to contact the police who we understand are leading investigations into this matter.”