A FATHER who helped lift a car off a six-year-old girl accident victim said today: "I'm no hero. Anyone would have done what I did."

Matthew Foster, aged 37, crawled under the wreckage and with the help of another passer-by lifted the Mitsubishi Colt saloon car off the screaming youngster who was lying underneath it with one of her arms trapped under its wheels.

Courtney Atkinson was walking home from school with her father on the pavement when she was hit by the car which crashed out of control after an accident with another car outside Beaumont Primary School on the Ladybridge estate.

She was pushed through a wire mesh fence before ending up under the wheels of the vehicle.

She is still seriously ill in Wythenshawe Hospital with head and back injuries.

Police say the Mitsubishi Colt mounted the pavement at the junction of Armadale Road and Wendover Drive after it collided with a Renault Clio.

Mr Foster, of Troon Close, Bolton, spotted the accident as he was sitting in the passenger seat of his wife's car at traffic lights in Armadale Road, Ladybridge, on Tuesday afternoon.

Mr Foster heard the crunch of metal and saw the car had mounted the pavement and had trapped the girl.

He ran to the crashed car and immediately recognised Courtney, who is in the same class as his six-year-old son Lewis. He had been to the girl's birthday party a couple of weeks ago.

Mr Foster slid underneath the car and with the help of a passerby lifted the car from the girl, who was then pulled free by her father.

Choking back the tears, Mr Foster today relived the moment when he helped rescue the girl.

Mr Foster said: "I had seen a man walking with his daughter and I knew they may have been involved. I told my wife to call 999 and then I instinctively sprinted over to them.

"When I got to the car the female driver was still in the car, I just remembered shouting at her to turn her engine off. I knew that somebody was trapped underneath.

"I slid underneath and that's when I knew it was a girl. She was under the car and the dad was beside her.

"This girl was covered in blood and she was screaming out for her mum and dad. I got as far underneath the car as I could, got as good a grip as I could and lifted the car with the help of someone. When the wheel had been lifted her dad pulled her away. The girl was still talking

The paramedics arrived about three minutes later, it seemed like a lifetime. They took over. I walked back to the car in complete shock, it was then I realised I was covered in blood." But Mr Foster declared he was no hero.

He said: "The real heroes were the girl and her dad.

"How the dad kept it together while his daughter was trapped under the car I will never know."

"It makes you realise how precious the life of your kids is, and how much you have to appreciate what you have got."

Police today said Courtney was in a stable condition in Wythenshawe Hospital.

Her injuries are not thought to be life-threatening.

Anyone with information about the collision should contact traffic police on 0161 856 7201.