Three-year-old girl in a coma after hit-and-run

A three-year-old girl from Northern Ireland was in a coma in a Spanish hospital today after she was knocked down in a hit-and-run incident on a mountain road.

Phoebe Lyle from Bangor, Co Down was fighting for her life in hospital in Oviedo after being thrown several metres by a car travelling at high speed on a mountain road near Leon, north-west of Madrid.

She had been holidaying with her parents, Robert and Jane Lyle.

A family friend gave her immediate medical attention at the scene of the accident before she was raced to Leon General Hospital by a crash team and ambulance.

Phoebe was later transferred to the specialist hospital in Oviedo where she is described as being in a critical condition.

Spanish police examining the scene of the hit-and-run recovered broken lights from the car which have been sent for forensic analysis in Madrid to help the hunt for the driver.

Doctors treating the little girl have also sent an urgent request to relatives in Northern Ireland for tape recordings of Phoebe’s favourite nursery rhymes and family voices in the hope that they will help her to break out of the coma.

Phoebe's father Robert is a director of the Belfast advertising agency McCann-Erickson, which has campaigned against drink driving and speeding. He and her mother Jane paid tribute to medical staff treating their daughter.

They said: ‘‘Phoebe could not have received better care or attention from all the medical teams involved.

‘‘We have only the highest praise for the hospitals, the Guardia Civil and the British Consul in Bilbao and most especially for the overwhelming kindness which has been shown to the entire family by the Spanish people.’’

Phoebe's four-year-old brother Patrick and her maternal grandmother were also on holiday with her at the time.