One-year-old girl knocked over and killed by bus in southern Germany while travelling with her mother

Police are trying to find out how the baby girl came to be in the road

Police shut the Bavarian bus stop for nearly three hours after a little girl was run over (Getty/AFP )

A one-year-old girl has been run over and killed by a bus in southern Germany while travelling with her mother, police confirmed.

The little girl was killed immediately by the back wheel of a bus at a station in Amberg, a town in eastern Bavaria, on Thursday evening.

Police said it was unclear how child came to be in the road, or behind the bus, and that all they know so far is that the pair had just alighted the bus before the accident happened, Bayerische Rundfunk reported.

The bus was reportedly stood still at the stop before knocking the girl over as it started up to leave. CCTV footage should show more clearly what happened, according to a police report.

The girl’s mother and a number of passers-by witnessed the accident and were taken by police to a nearby hospital for emergency psychological support.

Amberg’s state prosecutor has, the Augsburger Allgemeine reported, assigned a team of officers dedicated to work out exactly what went wrong and are asking for people who saw the accident to come forward.