A Strood teenager was left lying in the road after a driver knocked him off his motorbike - and drove off.

Ricky Knowles, 18, broke his kneecap and one of his hands and will be unable to work for at least six weeks.

He was riding along City Way, Rochester, on his way home from work as a marshal at Buckmore Park on Friday night when he was knocked down near The George pub.

Mr Knowles claims the driver pulled out and did an illegal U-turn at 10.45pm.

He said: "That's when I hit the passenger side. There was a big bang and I hit the floor.

"When I stopped rolling I stood up and shouted, but couldn't see them."

He looked up the road and spotted the vehicle driving off. He believes it smashed its wing mirror on another car.

Mr Knowles, who is studying plumbing at MidKent College, said there was a lot of glass on the floor where the window smashed and the impact would have left a dent in the passenger side.

His father, 50-year-old Gary Knowles, said: "This person left my son for dead. It was at least a 30mph impact. Even the ambulance people said he's really lucky.

"He worked so hard to save up for this bike and someone's just taken it away from him and nearly taken his life away, too."

Mr Knowles bought the new 125cc bike for £1,800 in December. It is now a write-off as the whole front end will need replacing and the chassis has cracked.

The former Greenacre School pupil spent 16 hours at Medway Maritime Hospital before being released on Saturday afternoon.

His mother Christine said: "He could have been lying there for hours.

"Someone somewhere has got to know where this car is."

There were two witnesses to the crash and two other people arrived on the scene shortly after to help.

A police spokesman confirmed officers were investigating and said they were looking for a small grey hatchback, similar to a Ford Fiesta.

Witnesses or anyone with information is asked to phone police on 101, quoting incident number 25-1798.

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