A nine-year-old Corsham girl suffered a painful broken leg after being hit by an elderly woman on a runaway mobility scooter while shopping with her family on Monday.

Box Primary School pupil Akeyla Pike, of Arnolds Mead, suffered the fracture on her left shin near her ankle when the woman, in her 70s, lost control of the heavy scooter, crashing into the girl as she queued with her family at the checkout of Clarks Factory Store in Street, Somerset.

The schoolgirl had been enjoying a long weekend away with her sister Naiya, one, brother Addison, seven, and mother Lisa, 37, to celebrate her father Graham’s 40th birthday, and will be in plaster for four weeks as she recovers from the injury.

Mr Pike, who runs LPC Taxi Service, said: “We were queuing up when I heard this terrible scream and then a lot of shouting behind me.

“I turned around and saw my daughter screaming and this woman on a mobility scooter shouting and zipping along.

“She’d lost control of it and it was still going. She was shouting ‘I can’t control it’ and ‘I shouldn’t have turned it on’.

“It all happened very quickly.”

Mr Pike, who called for security and a paramedic, said that the scooter was big and that it was going very quickly when it hit Akeyla.

He said: “I wasn’t happy as I could see Akeyla was in agony so I asked for the police to be called.

“A PCSO eventually came but he seemed more concerned about the woman on the mobility scooter.

“He told me she was very sorry and that it was an accident but I just wanted to make sure my daughter was okay.

“A paramedic came and said my daughter wasn’t too badly injured but we could go to the local hospital for a check-up.”

Mr Pike said doctors at West Mendip Community Hospital spotted the extent of Akeyla’s injury right away, putting her leg in plaster.

Mr Pike, who said Akeyla is still in a lot of pain and on painkillers, wants to see legislation introduced making licensing and insuring of mobility scooters compulsory.

He said: “I’ve written to my local MP Duncan Hames to say that there should be laws on these vehicles, as they are powerful, dangerous machines and I think people need to have a permit to operate them.

“This isn’t about gunning for an old woman but if I hit someone driving my vehicle I’d be thoroughly checked and held accountable if it was my fault.”