You will be aware that yesterday evening a young child was involved in a collision with a police vehicle in Lancaster and our thoughts and prayers are with this little boy and with his family.

The collision happened at just before 8.30pm on Owen Road in Lancaster at the junction with Torrisholme Road and involved a marked police Peugeot 308 hatchback which was responding to an emergency call.

The boy, who is 11 years old and from the local area, was taken by ambulance to the Royal Lancaster Infirmary and later transferred to Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool. He remains in a critical condition and our thoughts are with his loved ones at this time. They are being supported by specially trained officers.

We appreciate there will be lots of questions about what has happened and why and we want to reassure you that a full and thorough investigation will be carried out to establish the circumstances.

We have referred the matter to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) and they will be carrying out an independent investigation. We will, of course, co-operate fully with them but there may be some details we can’t go into as they will be subject to the IOPC investigation.

We want to take this opportunity to thank the local community for their understanding and support during what was clearly a hugely distressing incident.

There will be extra patrols in and around the area today and over the weekend and anyone with information or concerns should feel free to approach an officer.

Anyone with information, CCTV or dashcam footage should contact 101.