UPDATE: '˜More than two' hurt in car crash

Police and ambulance services were called to Whalley Place at around 3.25pm to reports that a schoolchild of unknown age had been hit by a vehicle.

Ambulance services confirmed ‘more than two’ people had been injured, with one patient being taken by airlifted to hospital. Police and paramedics remain at the scene.

A black A-Class Mercedes was seen on the pavement outside the Heng Yun Chinese restaurant.

Ahsha Blue, 19, of Church Road, Lytham, said the car hit his foot as he climbed onto his motorbike.

He said: “I was a second away from death. He was a millimetre away.”

Ahsha said the car was being driven by a man in his 70s, who appeared to barrel through bollards by accident.

He hit one woman, thought to be in her 30s, as she left a shop. She was airlifted by air ambulance to Royal Preston Hospital with head injuries.

The car then careered towards a small group of ‘four to five’ schoolgirls outside the Spar shop. One, aged in her early teens, suffered leg injuries after jumping out of the way, Ahsha said. She was helped into a wheelchair and taken for further treatment.

Ahsha said the driver of the Merc was ‘very shaken up’ and added: “It was a complete accident.”

The row of shops was taped off by police.

The extent of the woman and girl’s injuries are not yet fully known, however, an ambulance service spokesman said they had ‘a lot of resources on the way’.

More to follow.