CHURCH leaders say they are praying for an 85-year-old who was knocked down while walking home from a Remembrance Day service in East Lancashire.

Jack Parkinson was struck by a vehicle as he crossed Halifax Road in Brierfield, on Sunday morning.

Paramedics treated Mr Parkinson at the scene before he was taken to hospital by air ambulance.

He is understood to have suffered serious head injuries, as a result of the collision, and is being treated at a specialist unit in Leeds.

Mr Parkinson had been attending a service at Brierfield Baptist Church, in Guilford Street, before the incident.

Church spokesman David Leeming said: "He is being remembers in our services in church and individually in prayer by the members of our church.

"We are also thinking about his family at this time."

Councillors said they believed he had been paying his respects at the town's war memorial earlier.

An investigation has been launched by road police and anyone who saw anything near the junction of Halifax Road and Burnley Road on Sunday morning is being asked to call officers on the non-emergency number 101.