The two-year-old boy who was hit by a car his Italian grandfather was driving last Thursday is recovering from the accident, his mother told The Straits Times on Tuesday.

The freak accident happened when the boy cycled into the path of the car that his grandfather was reversing into the family's Chancery Hill Walk compound that evening. His grandmother, a woman in her 70s who was visiting from Italy, died trying to protect him from the impact, which severed the boy's leg. The boy's Caucasian mother, still distraught from the accident, declined to say more.

Chinese evening daily Shin Min reported that the deceased grandmother and her husband, also in his 70s, were in Singapore to visit their son, who lives at the Chancery Hill bungalow with his family.

The accident had happened when the grandmother, seeing the two-year-old cycling into the path of the car, yelled at her husband as she ran to try and lift the boy away. But in his panic, her husband mistakenly stepped on the accelerator, which caused the car to hurtle towards his wife and grandson. They were flung 5m into the wall.

While the boy's leg was severed by the impact, he was sent conscious to KK Women's and Children's Hospital.

His grandmother died from her injuries at Tan Tock Seng Hospital.

Police said that investigations into the accident are ongoing.