A FIVE-year-old boy has been taken to hospital after being hit by a car earlier last night.

The emergency services were called to Highfield Street at around 5.40pm following the collision, which involved the boy and a silver Ford Focus.

It is believed the youngster had been playing in nearby Ratcliffe Street before being hit.

One resident said she saw paramedics tending to him while she was driving home.

She said he was awake but in pain, and was being comforted by his father before being taken to the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital.

She said: "I was crying. It was so heartbreaking. His dad was talking to him but he wasn't talking back very much.

"I didn't see the accident happen, I was driving home and saw the ambulance and police.

"Then I saw this little lad lying on the floor."

Although there was no suggestion the driver was to blame, the resident said children often play in Ratcliffe Street, which she said drivers regularly speed up and down.

"They need to have speed cameras or something," she said.

"Cars come down here at 60mph. When they go past my house, they're going so quick it shakes."

The driver, thought to be a local man in his mid-20s, was 'hysterical' following the collision, she added. 

Police officers spent hours in the taped-off street carrying out tests before leaving the scene at around 8pm.

Insp Simon Holderness, from Lancashire Police, confirmed the boy was taken to hospital with head injuries.

However, he was unable to comment on the extent of the child's injuries or say which hospital he was taken to.

Nobody was arrested.