Boy, 11, in critical condition after being hit by police van in Lancaster

An 11-year-old lad is successful a captious information aft helium was struck by a constabulary van successful Lancaster.

Lancashire constabulary said they were attending an exigency telephone connected Thursday nighttime erstwhile the collision occurred with the boy, who was crossing Owen Road conscionable earlier 8.30pm.

The lad was taken to Royal Lancaster Infirmary successful a captious condition.

A constabulary spokesperson said: “Our thoughts are with the child’s loved ones astatine this time.

“An probe is nether mode to found the afloat circumstances that led to the collision. We person voluntarily referred this substance to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), arsenic is modular with an incidental of this nature.”

The IOPC said it had declared an autarkic probe into the actions of constabulary earlier the collision.

“We recognize that a marked constabulary van, with its lights and sirens on, was successful a collision with an 11-year-old boy,” it said successful a statement.

“We were notified by the unit soon aft the collision and declared an probe astatine 10.37pm. IOPC investigators are heading to the country and the constabulary post-incident process to statesman gathering information.”

The IOPC was successful the aboriginal stages of its investigation, it said.