A THREE-YEAR-OLD boy was thrown into the air after a collision with a car outside a school.

The tot was injured outside Hamstel Infant and Nursery School, in Southend.

Police and the ambulance service raced to the scene at 3.15pm yesterday.

Paramedics assessed the boy’s injuries, which were not thought to be serious, before taking him to Southend Hospital.

The accident occurred near the junction with Castleton Road, around the time parents were collecting their children from school.

Residents initially feared the worst, but the boy is not thought to be badly hurt.

A Castleton Road resident, who asked not to be named, said: “I heard a young boy had been thrown up in the air by a car and it didn’t look good.”

A police spokesman said: “We were called by the ambulance service, shortly after 3.15pm, to the scene of an incident in Poynings Avenue, Southend, where a silver Ford Ka and a three-year-old boy struck each other.

“Paramedics assessed the injuries, which look to be minor at this stage.”

The accident comes only a month after a teenage boy was knocked off his bike in Hamstel Road, on a crossing just outside the junior school shortly after pupils had left school for the day.

Andriana Iacoron, of Poynings Avenue, said: “There should be a crossing near the side entrance to the school as well.

“Too many children come out of that entrance on to Poynings. It’s dangerous as there are lots of cars going up and down the road at that time.”

Residents of Castleton Road highlighted the parking situation in their road as a being a possible cause for accident.

David Martin, 78, said: “I would think the main cause of the accident was parking.

“People park dangerously on the corners and you can’t see round them.

“They park over people’s drives and speed down the narrow road.”