Mum reveals how a split-second moment of distraction led to her little boy being fatally struck by a vehicle in a the carpark of New Hope Baptist Church in Melbourne

The devastated mother of a toddler who was fatally struck by a vehicle in a car park outside a Melbourne church said the tragedy happened in a flash while her back was turned.

Thang Khat Siam, 2, was killed when he was hit in the car park of New Hope Baptist Church in Blackburn North, 17km east of the CBD, about 7pm on Saturday evening.

He and his family had just arrived for the Khuado Pawi cultural festival held by the Zomi ethnic group, originally from mountain towns in northwestern Myanmar.

Emergency services were immediately called, but paramedics were unable to save the little boy’s life.

Now the boy’s mother, Cing Khaw Nuam, has revealed that she was picking up spilled chips from the footwell of her car when she lost sight of little Khat Siam before seeing him again in the arms of a bystander.

“I saw a big crowd and when I got there, someone was holding my son,” Mrs. Cing told the newspaper Herald Sun.

“(I) realized my boy got hit by a car. He was still breathing, but no sound anymore.’

The driver of the vehicle – a 49-year-old man – stopped to assist Khat Siam and is assisting police with investigations.

Khat Siam, who loved Thomas the Tank Engine, would celebrate his third birthday this month.

Mrs Cing described her son as a “gift from God” because they had wanted him for so long.

His devastated parents (pictured) described him as a ‘poison from god’

‘When his eldest sister turned six, we no longer had a child and even our daughter prayed for a brother. And so we pray and pray,” she told the newspaper.

The Sun family fled Myanmar to Australia after receiving humanitarian visas to leave the troubled country.

Detectives from the Major Collision Investigation Unit have launched an investigation.

“The circumstances surrounding the collision have yet to be determined and the investigation is ongoing,” a police statement said.