Neighbours watched in horror as a 10-year-old US girl was snatched off the street just blocks from her home.

Some had spotted a man in a gold Ford Ranger pick-up truck driving down the road in Springfield, southwest Missouri several times before the driver took off with the girl, investigators said.

Residents tried to pull the girl away and chase the truck. But the vehicle moved too quickly. And Hailey Owens was gone.

Now prosecutors have charged Craig Michael Wood with first-degree murder, kidnapping and armed criminal action. In filing the charges they alleged the 45-year-old middle school football coach and teacher's aide abducted Hailey as she walked home from a friend's house on Tuesday.