A father today told how his six-year-old daughter was thrown into the air "like a rag doll" and had to be rushed to hospital after a motorbike roared through a park and collided with her.

Charlotte Austin, pictured here with her dad, was picking daisies in Bradford's Peel Park, seconds before the collision with the high-powered RTM trials bike.

Her dad Nigel, a 35-year-old draughtsman from Allerton, was pushing a pram with his 18-month-old baby Georgia inside when the accident happened near some swings in the Bradford Council-owned park at tea-time on Saturday.

His wife Diane, also 35, screamed as she watched the impact of the crash send her eldest child sprawling across the grass in the Undercliffe park, scattering the flowers she had picked just moments earlier.

The pair rushed to help their injured daughter, who was left lying on her back with blood seeping from her right ear and a deep gash to the back of her head.

Another couple, with whom they had been walking, called for an ambulance as Charlotte's parents frantically tried to keep their daughter conscious by talking to her.

Paramedics put a neck brace on the youngster before they strapped her to a spinal board and took her to Bradford Royal Infirmary.

Mr Austin said: "I just thought her skull was cracked. The blood was pouring out from her ear and there was a pool of blood on the grass underneath her head.

"There was so much blood on the grass and it was all matted in her hair.

"I was just by the swings and had let Charlotte walk off to pick some daisies. We never let her play out in the street, but you just think she would be safe in a public park.

"It's the worst thing for a parent to see your child go through the air like a rag doll. I feared the worst."

Doctors performed a series of x-rays on the battered youngster's skull and scans to check for brain damage.

But after spending 24 hours under round-the-clock observation, she was allowed home yesterday evening.

Mrs Austin, who works in a sales office, said: "The doctors think she could have a perforated ear-drum, but she's so young she can't tell which ear she can hear through and which one she can't.

"We have to go back for some more tests at the hospital, but it could have been a lot worse. I just hope that this never happens to anyone else."

Acting Inspector Keith Boots, of Bradford North police, said: "It's a problem we are aware of and we are doing as much as we can to tackle it. The police are working very closely with the Park Rangers.

"These high powered bikes can be lethal weapons and dangerous pieces of machinery in the wrong hands."

A 19-year-old man was today charged with dangerous driving and was due to appear before Bradford Magistrates in connection with the incident.