POLICE are hunting a hit and run driver who callously left an eight-year-old boy lying injured at the side of a busy road.

Matthew Surtees was hit by a car driven by a woman dressed in either a nurse’s or carer’s uniform.

But instead of helping him, she launched a tirade of abuse at the stricken youngster before driving off.

Last night, Matthew’s mum Kim described the woman as “the lowest of the low”.

Matthew had almost crossed Whitehouse Lane, which runs through his home village of Ushaw Moor, near Durham City, when he was struck by the car, believed to have been a Fiat Punto.

The youngster was knocked to the ground and hit his head on the road.

But instead of helping him the woman got out of her car and began swearing at him.

Kim, 37, a housewife married to Andrew, said: “She got out of the car and leaned over Matthew, who was injured, and began shouting and swearing at him. He was dazed and very frightened.

“She then got back into the car and drove off.”

Kim, of Hunter Avenue, thanked people in Ushaw Moor, including teenagers from the nearby Deerness Valley Comprehensive School, for coming to her son’s aid.

She explained: “A local man called John Reed, who I know, had seen what had happened in his car mirror.

“When the woman drove off he turned around and came back to help Matthew.