A mechanic said he saw a 15-year-old boy dragged 200 yards down the street after being hit by a bus when he fell off his hoverboard.

Jeffery Mingle, 33, said he screamed 'there's a bus coming' after seeing Nawaf Al-Tuwayan fall off the £250 gadget but he was unable to get up before being hit by the London bus.

Mr Mingle then saw him dragged 200 yards down the road while stuck underneath the bus as the driver was totally unaware he had hit the boy.

Nawaf Al-Tuwayan is believed to be the first victim of the craze for the £250 gadget after he collided with a bus in London on Thursday evening

Mr Mingle said he desperately tried to chase the driver down to tell him what had happened, but by the time he got there, the boy could not be saved.

'I chased the bus, banged on the side and told the driver what had happened. We looked under the bus but it was too late. The boy was dead,' he told The Sun.

Mr Mingle told The Times it took 15 minutes to raise the bus and then another 20 to get the boy out from underneath it in Glacier Way, north west London.

He also said Nawaf did not look confident on the board and was lunging forward and backward before it threw him 'face-first into the road', sending the board flying towards Mr Mingle.

'He was scrambling to get to his feet when the bus came round the corner and hit him. He was dragged under it,' Mr Mingle added.

Nawaf, a pupil at Acton High School in West London, was found at about 6.30pm on Thursday and pronounced dead at the scene in north Alperton, west London by paramedics.

The 15-year-old boy was killed after being hit by a bus while riding a hoverboard (stock image) in Alperton

The driver of the 224 bus that hit him was not arrested. A colleague who witnessed the accident, said he was careful and experienced.

He said: 'It was terrible, a boy was killed. I came back from my break yesterday and I saw police and an ambulance. This whole area was sealed off by police.

'I couldn't get to the other side of the road to get my bus so I asked another driver what happened and he said someone was under the wheels of the bus.'

We looked under the bus but it was too late. The boy was dead Jeffery Mingle

'He is a very experienced driver. I was shocked when I heard it was him. He is very nice and kind and well behaved. I see him on the road every day. He is always helping everyone, always careful.

'It must be devastating for him as well as for the family of the boy.'

Mike Weston, Transport for London's director of buses, said: 'Our deepest sympathies go out to the family and friends of the 15-year-old boy who died after a collision.'

A cousin in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where Nawaf is from, paid tribute to him on social media.

He said: 'We ask God to give us pattience and to help his family and to give them patience and fortitude. We pray he enters paradise.'

The death has fuelled safety fears about the two-wheeled toys, which have been promoted as this year's must-have Christmas gift.

As police investigate, council leaders said the tragedy underlined why riding hoverboards on pavements or public roads has been banned.

In October this year, the CPS ruled that hoverboards could only be used in private as they are too dangerous to ride in public

As well as fears riders could lose control, trading standards bosses say many imported hoverboards could explode while charging.

Last night Muhammed Butt, of Brent Council, said: 'This incident highlights why it is illegal to use them on highways – because they are not safe to be used.'

Officers from the Serious Collision Investigation Unit are investigating the incident and TfL have promised to work with them.

BANNED BY MAJOR U.S. AIRLINES THE three biggest airlines in the US have banned hoverboards after a string of incidents in which they caught on fire. Delta Air Lines, American Airlines and United Airlines said they would not allow the device as hold baggage or checked-in luggage. The firms said that hoverboards were a fire risk because of their lithium-ion batteries. JetBlue, another big US airline, has already banned them and last night several other smaller airlines said they had followed suit. The moves comes after the US Consumer Product Safety Commission began investigating at least ten reports of hoverboard fires. New York has made hoverboards illegal, with fines of up to £120 for using them on pavements. Advertisement

Hoverboards have become hugely popular in the last year following their use by the likes of actor Jamie Foxx and singer Justin Bieber.

Earlier this year, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) ruled they can only be used on private property because they are too dangerous to ride in public.

The CPS guidance was originally issued for Segways, which include a handlebar and are also not permitted on roads - but it now also covers hoverboards.

It is an offence under section 72 of the Highway Act 1835 to ride them on the pavement in England and Wales - and, north of the border, under section 129(5) of the Roads (Scotland) Act 1984.

Meanwhile it is also illegal to ride them on a public road because they are not approved by the European or British test schemes for road-legal vehicles.

The gadgets are this year's must have Christmas gift, but their soaring popularity has led to a flood of cheap imitations from low-cost manufacturers and reports of them overheating and catching fire.

Safety watchdogs have inspected 17,000 hoverboards that have been imported into the UK since October.

Of those, 15,000 - or 88 per cent - have been found to be defective. Many were destined to be sold as Christmas presents.

Many had substandard plugs without fuses, which could allow the device to overheat and later explode.