A STUDENT from the region has died after being knocked down by a police patrol car as it responded to a 999 call.

Emily Higson, who was 22, died in the early hours of yesterday at hospital in Oxford following the accident late on Sunday night. And as tributes were paid to the "dearly loved daughter, sister and friend" an investigation was launched into the circumstances behind the tragedy.

Emily, from York, was a final year student at Oxford Brookes University, where she was studying sociology and anthropology.

She was hit by the patrol car at about 11.30pm on Sunday at a road junction on Oxford's Cowley Road, near he shared lodgings.

The officers in the car, a man and a woman, were answering a 999 call and tried help Miss Higson at the scene. However she later died at the John Radcliffe Hospital.

Her parents have travelled from York to Oxford to be with her sister, Sophie, who is understood to live in the city.

They said: "We are devastated to have lost a wonderful, generous and gifted young woman who stood at the gateway of her adult life. But we give thanks for the privileges of knowing her and of sharing her life," they said.

An investigation into the tragedy has been launched by Thames Valley Police and will be supervised by the Police Complaints Authority.

A spokesman for the authority said a full traffic investigation was being carried out and specialists had been called in to assist.