A Camden County mother says she is very thankful for a group of young men who saved her daughter from being attacked by a dog earlier this week.

“The dog just came out of nowhere,” says 9-year-old Toni Diaz.

The attack happened at Madison Park in Pennsauken on Monday. Then three strangers jumped into action to help her.

“They were hitting the dog with chairs and then they threw a trashcan on top of the dog. And the dog was just spinning in circles, and they picked me up and ran me into the car,” Diaz says.

Diaz was taken to Cooper Hospital for treatment and is now recovering at home.

“She had a gash on her right arm on her elbow…and her right forearm. Her back is all gnawed and scratched and has a couple of puncture wounds. Abrasions, a bite mark on her heart and one on her other side,” says Erika Rivera, Diaz’s mother.

Rivera says that she wrote a message on a local Facebook group hoping to find the three men who saved her daughter. The internet worked its magic, and the men were identified. They got to re-meet Diaz at the park where they saved her.

“I called them my superheroes,” Diaz says.

“I love them. They are my angels and her angels, and they were really at the right place at the right time,” says Rivera.

The mother and daughter say they are hoping to share their story so that it doesn’t happen to anyone else.

"What I want people to know is to just keep their dogs on leashes,” Rivera says.

Pennsauken police say that the dog’s owner has been charged in the incident. A judge will determine if the dog will have to be euthanized.