THIS five-year-old girl was left seriously injured after being hit by a van – and now police are investigating whether the vehicle was stolen.

Maddi Price was left with a broken knee, two black eyes and nine stitches in her head after she was hit by the vehicle on Attlee Way, Cefn Golau, Tredegar, last week.

In hospital, she said to her mother: “What if I’d died, mam?”

Two men were arrested at the scene on suspicion of aggravated and unlawful vehicle taking and Gwent Police have appealed for witnesses to the incident.

Maddi’s mother, Claire Brooker, 31, recounted the terrifying moment that a neighbour came running up to her with her badly-injured daughter in his arms.

She said: “I was in the shop and everyone was running around outside saying there’d been an accident.

My heart sank when someone said Maddi had been knocked over and a boy carried her to me.”

Ms Brooker said Maddi had rode her bicycle out of Cefn Golau Park at around 7pm last Tuesday.

After her brakes failed, she was hit by the Maxus van, with her bike left under its wheels.

She was rushed to Prince Charles Hospital, Merthyr Tydfil, where she was kept until Friday, receiving stitches in her forehead while her right leg was placed in plaster.

Her mother said: “Maddi said to me ‘what if I’d died mam?’ It broke my heart. She has been having nightmares about it and been really quiet.”

The Deighton Primary pupil who has two sisters, Georgia, ten, and Keeley-Mae, eight months, will nowbe off school for six weeks with her leg in plaster.

The incident has intensified demands by locals and councillors to get traffic calming measures on the road.

Cefn Golau tenants and residents’ association have been campaigning to reduce the speed limit from 30mph to 20mph and to get speed bumps on Attlee Way for 12 years.

Cllr Haydn Trollope said there has been a number of “near misses” over the years and there are fears someone could be killed if nothing is done.

Attlee Way resident Danielle Burke, 28, said: “One day a child will be killed.”

Mum-of-two Tammy Sutton, 33, said she had been involved in a car crash on that road 15 years ago, and added: “That shows howlong there’s been a problem.”

A Gwent Police spokeswoman said a 21-year-old man from Blackwood and 39-year-old man from Crumlin were arrested on suspicion of aggravated and unlawful taking of a vehicle.

They were bailed until July 12, with Gwent Police asking witnesses to call 101.