A HOLBURY schoolboy is fighting for his life after he suffered serious head injuries in a hit-and-run accident.

Ryan Liddon, 15, was walking along Fawley Road, Hythe, when he was hit by a car that went out of control and overturned.

Hythe police have launched a hunt for the driver, who ran away after the crash on Butts Bridge Hill.

Ryan suffered life-threatening injuries, including a blood clot on the brain, and was taken to the neurological unit at Southampton General Hospital.

His distraught parents, Anthony and Angela Liddon, of Larkspur Gardens, Holbury, are keeping a vigil at his hospital bedside, along with their elder son, Nicholas.

A police spokesman said: "A silver-coloured Proton car was travelling from the Hardley Roundabout direction towards Hythe when it lost control, overturned and struck a pedestrian. The driver fled the scene of the collision."

The spokesman confirmed that Ryan suffered life-threatening head injuries in the accident, which occurred at the northern end of Fawley Road, close to its junction with Beaulieu Road.

He is also understood to have also received serious leg and pelvic injuries.

The accident happened at 5.25pm on Sunday, but police did not release details until yesterday afternoon.

Fawley Road resident Jenny Manley said: "We were driving home when we saw the road was blocked off between the vets' surgery and Hythe Hospital.

"Police were putting barriers across the road and diverting traffic along Frost Lane.

"No one knew what was going on but it was obviously something serious."

Ryan is a Year 11 pupil at Hardley School, Holbury, which learned of the accident yesterday when his mother telephoned to report his absence.

A school spokesman said: "The students are very upset. They're thinking about the family the whole time and hoping for good news from the hospital."

Police are appealing for witnesses to the accident and also need to hear from anyone who thinks they know the identity of the driver.

Anyone with information should contact Operation Lexington at Eastleigh Roads Policing Unit on 0845 045 4545.