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A two-year-old girl was critically ill today after she became trapped underneath a car which rolled on top of her near to a children’s centre.

Paramedics said that the injured child stopped breathing at one point.

But they resuscitated her on the way to hospital. Firefighters freed the girl from underneath a Fiat Punto which had been in a car park near the SureStart centre in Crescent Road, Darlaston. It is thought she had been to the centre with her mother as part of Family Learning Week events for Halloween.

It is unclear how the car rolled back on to her.

The girl suffered serious head, face and bodily injuries and was taken to Walsall Manor Hospital. She was transferred to Birmingham’s Children’s Hospital where her condition was described as “critical” today.

Both ends of Crescent Road were blocked off by police following the incident at 2.30pm yesterday, and it remained closed until the early evening as investigations took place.

A man who saw firefighters free the child said: “They were using an airbag to get the car off the little girl.”

West Midlands Ambulance Service spokeswoman Claudine Weeks said that the girl had stopped breathing at one point but she had been revived by paramedics.

She said: “An ambulance was sent to the scene, and the crew found the child underneath a car.

“The fire service freed her, and she was rushed to Walsall Manor Hospital,” she added.

“Paramedics worked desperately to resuscitate her as they conveyed her to hospital, and the hospital was put on standby.

“A full team of six doctors and four nurses were on hand to receive her at accident and emergency at Walsall Manor, as the ambulance arrived.”

West Midlands Fire Service spokesman Mike Fox said that crews from Bilston and Wednesbury had been called to help free the girl and offer first aid.

He said: “When crews got there, they found a two-year-old girl trapped beneath a car, which is believed to have rolled back.

“An airbag was used to raise the car so crews could get to her.” Officers from Bloxwich Road Policing Unit are investigating and said today that “a number of lines of inquiry” were being followed up

Let's just picture the scene. Someone gets their jack, lifts the car up, fumbles, and the car falls again crushing the child's head.

Sometimes it is best to wait for the professionals.

The problem is that once you have lifted the car the person trapped under it, if conscious, tends to panic and try to crawl out, all too often tripping the people carrying the car.

I hear about this sort of thing from colleagues in A&E and they are convinced that people don't help because they are too busy getting it all on camera.

We don't have a Good Samaritan Act either. Most of the states of the USA do have such an act...

That sounds like a really good idea! It's not often I hear of something from the US of A that I would prefer to have over here but that seems, at first glance like a really fair and sensible thing to have!

I guess we have moved into an age where75% of the population may never have chaned a light bulb, never mind a tyre!

I guess we have moved into an age where75% of the population may never have chaned a light bulb, never mind a tyre!

Add a tyre change to the driving test?

And when a clumsy, inept or stupid person attempts to perform his duty under such an act?

It sounds like: We expect you to act, irrespective of whether or not you know what you are doing. Now I quite undertand that it would never say any such thing, but does the guy on the spot?