In France there is a yearly average of 500,000 reported attacks by dogs, with 60,000 of those bitten requiring hospitalization and plastic surgery. Damages caused by dogs was estimated £70 million a year in the UK; in 1993 there were an estimated 140,000 dog bite incidents. In Belgium up to 40,000 are bitten each year. Three-quarters of the victims are younger than 14, and half are younger than four. Most victims are bitten by a dog they know. Small dogs bite as much as big ones and the wounds inflicted by either can be serious.