Police were on Saturday night investigating the first death of a cyclist riding a "Boris bike" in London.

A woman, aged 20, was struck by a lorry on Whitechapel High Street as she rode along cycle superhighway 2 in east London, one of the specially designed cycling safe routes into the capital. Emergency services were called to the scene outside Aldgate East station at around 6.30pm.

A Metropolitan police spokesman said traffic officers are appealing for witnesses to the collision. The lorry driver, who stopped at the scene, was not arrested.

This is the first fatality since the mayor of London, Boris Johnson, launched his scheme in 2010 and comes ahead of plans to introduce eight more cycle routes by 2015.

Leon Daniels, from Transport for London (TfL), said: "TfL has a range of measures already under way to further reduce the number of collisions involving cyclists across London and we will be assisting the Metropolitan police with their investigation."

Deaths and injuries among cyclists have risen sharply, with 118 killed in 2012 – up from 107 the year before. The increase comes despite a drop in road casualties to the lowest overall level since records were first collected almost 90 years ago, according to government statistics.

Campaigners want improved cycle lanes and a redesign of construction lorries to eliminate blind spots.