POLICE announced last night that they had arrested the suspected driver of a stolen car which killed a young girl.

News of the arrest came only hours after the parents of little Rebecca Sawyer made an emotional plea for the man to give himself up.

Six-year-old Rebecca died when a Vauxhall Astra collided with a Citroen Saxo in which she was travelling with her father and younger sister.

The collision, at 10.45pm on New Year's Eve, in Ashington, Northumberland, left her 18-month-old sister Kirsty fighting for her life. Her parents said the next 48 hours would be crucial.

Their father, Steven, 33, was left badly bruised and with cuts to his face.

Mr Sawyer and his wife, Sharon, 33, held a Press conference at Newcastle General Hospital yesterday while police were still looking for the suspect.

Speaking directly to the wanted man, he said: "You are going to get caught, they know who you are. Just come in now.

"She was a great kid, a beautiful kid, a really happy child and I will never see her again."

Mrs Sawyer, a nurse at Wansbeck General Hospital, said: "He knows who he is, his friends in the car know who he is, everybody in Ashington knows who he is. He has robbed me of a daughter."

Last night a police spokesman confirmed that a man had been taken into custody yesterday but said: "He was arrested, he did not surrender into custody."

The spokesman said a further announcement about possible charges would be made this morning.

He confirmed that the arrested man is from the Ashington area. The man is thought to be in his twenties.

On the night of the crash, Mr Sawyer had picked up his daughters from his mother's house while his wife waited at home in Malvern Close, Ashington.

At a set of traffic lights, the stolen Vauxhall, which was fitted with false number plates, collided with Mr Sawyer's Saxo.

He said yesterday he only remembered a loud bang then being treated at the side of the road by another driver.

Mrs Sawyer said Rebecca was "like a little mother" to her younger sister.

Mr Sawyer, a postman, smiled sadly as he said: "She talked too much and that was her only fault. She was a smashing kid."

His wife added: "We had six lovely years with her."

Earlier yesterday, police said that two men and a woman had been released on police bail.