A six-year-old girl has crashed her mother’s BMW into two cars after taking the vehicle on a half-mile joyride to visit her dad.

The child is said to have stolen her sleeping mother’s car keys at around 9am on Saturday and somehow managed to drive the vehicle half a mile along icy roads in Lawrenceville, Georgia.

The girl, described by police as “tall for her age”, crashed the BMW into two parked vehicles and an electricity pylon before her dangerous journey came to an end.

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Speaking to WTAE Pittsburgh, eyewitness Rommie Hawkins said: “I thought she was going to hit me, but then she stopped just in time, and as I observed, she was this little kid”

He added: “I was like ‘Stop, stop, stop.' She looked at me, and she took back off and she stopped again, so I started running up the hill, telling her to stop, and she was going and stopping, going and stopping.”

The girl’s mother awoke shortly after her daughter stole the car, and upon noticing she was gone, phoned the police.

The girl crashed into two parked vehicles shortly after the call, before finally careering into an electricity pylon. She emerged from the wreckage without a scratch but was crying and saying she wanted her dad. The girl’s father drove to the scene to comfort his daughter.

Police Sgt. Jerry Parker said: 'The girl decided she wanted to visit her father, who lived in a different location. She picked up the car keys and got in the car and drove away.

'How she knew how to operate a car - your guess is as good as mine.'

Police say they are still investigating and are yet to decide on whether to press charges against her mother for allowing the child to leave her care.