POLICE are appealing for witnesses after a nine-year-old girl was knocked off her bike after a collision with a van.

The girl involved in the incident suffered only minor injuries and was able to get straight back on her bike and ride to school but police would like to establish exactly what happened and determine if anyone was at fault.

The collision happened on Salters Lane South, in Darlington, outside the Springfield Resource Centre, near the main entrance to Education Village, at about 8.30am on Friday, February 27.

PC Simon Morris, who is investigating the incident, said: "The area will have been busy at the time as it was just before school started so we'd like to speak to anyone who may have seen what happened as we have conflicting reports at the moment. It was a minor collision and the girl is fine and well and rode on to school but we would just like to establish what happened."

Witnesses can contact PC 2411 Morris on the Darlington response team on 101, quoting reference DHN-270215-0390