A 13-year-old boy is fighting for his life in hospital after being hit by a car and suffering serious head injuries.

Bradley Trimmer was with his 12-year-old girlfriend when they were both struck by a grey Audi A4 along High Road, Chadwell Heath — near to the junction with Mill Lane — at around 4pm on Saturday.

Friends and family of the avid Arsenal fan, who is in year nine at Eastbrook Comprehensive School, have inundated a Facebook page set up by his aunty with touching comments and offers of help for the family.

Bradley, from Dagenham, was taken to the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel as a priority where he remains in a coma to help reduce the swelling on his brain caused by the impact.

His girlfriend, who suffered minor injuries, was taken to Queen’s Hospital, Romford.

Jazz Sahib, 42, owner of car parts shop Auto Star Elites close to where the accident took place, said: “There was a screech or a scream by the girl. I didn’t see the car moving, I just saw it at a standstill and saw them lying on the floor.

“It was quite an impact. I phoned the ambulance and the police but we weren’t allowed to move the boy.

“He was unconscious at the time. The girl got off the floor and stood up, she was crying and people came out and put a chair down for her to sit down on. She said she was OK but they still took her away in the ambulance.

“They didn’t move the boy for a good 20 minutes and put a blanket cover over him so no-one could see what was happening.”

The driver of the vehicle, a 36-year-old man, stopped at the scene of the incident. No arrests have been made. Following the incident, High Road in Chadwell Heath was closed to traffic for around two-and-a-half hours.

Air ambulance staff attended the incident along with a single response unit, a motorbike responder, three ambulances and police. An air ambulance doctor escorted the boy to hospital.