Horror hit a city centre caravan park following the death of a young boy involved in a freak accident while playing on his bike.

Emergency services were called to the Caravan Club, next to Rowntree Park, in Terry Avenue, after a four-year-old boy, who was riding a pedal cycle, was in collision with a car towing a caravan.

Police said the car was moving slowly in the compact caravan site when the accident occurred.

The youngster, from West Yorkshire, was taken to York Hospital just before 7pm on Thursday, with serious injuries. He died yesterday morning.

Formal identification is expected to take place on Monday, with an inquest also expected to be opened and adjourned next week.

Police are not naming the boy until all his family have been informed.

Ken and Jacqueline Robson, from Newcastle, were onsite when the incident occurred. "We were onsite having our dinner and a woman came running up asking people if they had a little boy on a bike," Mrs Robson said.

"They were obviously trying to locate the parents. It wasn't until later on when we went to wash the dishes near the entrance to the site that we saw the ambulance and police."

She said she was shocked the boy had died following the accident. "We didn't know how serious it was," she said. "It's awful, dreadful. It's unbelievable. The site's not very big, but you don't necessarily know what's going on at the other end.

"We never for one minute thought it would be serious. We thought he had just gone to hospital as a precaution."

Mr Robson said he had heard the boy had been cycling around the site for some time that afternoon.

Another caravaner from Blackburn, who asked not to be named, said: "There was a young boy on his pushbike.

"He was cycling through a walkway and he collided with a caravan."

A spokeswoman for the site owners said: "The Caravan Club offers its most sincere and deepest sympathies to the family and friends of the little boy who was involved in a tragic accident on a club site on Thursday.

"This matter is in the hands of the police and we are therefore unable to make further comment at this time. Once again, our thoughts and sympathies are with the family."

She said this was the first incident of its type on the site, which has been open since 1972.