SICK thieves stole a nine-year-old girl's mobile phone as she lay bleeding in the street after a road accident in York.

Clifton Without Primary School pupil Faye Sellers was crossing Water Lane to reach her home in Elston Close when the accident happened at 1.30pm yesterday.

Just moments later, a thief snatched her mobile phone, which had fallen from her pocket when she fell.

Faye's stepfather Daniel Hendy, 27, said he was disgusted by the theft. Faye had received the phone, a silver Sagem MYX-2, as a Christmas present just five days earlier.

"Mobile phone theft is bad enough but to take one from a nine-year-old child who has been knocked down is disgusting. This is the lowest of the low," Mr Hendy said.

He said Faye was covered in cuts and bruises and had a leg injury and a lump on her head from the accident. She was taken by ambulance to York Hospital.

"The thief was an opportunist. Faye was incoherent at the time and the woman who had been driving the car was very upset," he said.

"There were a few people standing around her and one of them must have taken the phone. It's sick."

Mr Hendy said he was worried the theft might have spoilt Faye's Christmas holiday.

"She was really upset by it. She's still in shock.

"It was her first phone and one of the reasons I got it for her was security. But it was nicked by the kind of people I want her to stay away from."

Mr Hendy reached the scene of the accident only moments after the phone was taken.

He tried ringing it several times but whoever had the phone hung up and then switched the phone off. He then reported the theft to the police and the mobile phone company so the phone could be cancelled.

"I want to make people aware of how low people can go. I want these people caught," he said.

"If they will take a mobile phone from an injured child, they will do anything."

He added he intended to replace the phone so Faye would not suffer any more than she already had.

Anyone who saw the theft or knows the whereabouts of the phone should contact York Police on 01904 631321.

Updated: 09:40 Wednesday, December 31, 2003