Police at the scene of nine-month-old baby run over by a forklift at Blakley Automotive in Moolap, Geelong. Picture: Glenn Ferguson Source: News Corp Australia

The infant remained in a critical condition last night as his family made an agonising hospital vigil.

The nine-month-old boy was flown to Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital about 8pm on Saturday night after his father accidentally ran into him at his automotive workshop in Geelong’s south-eastern suburbs.

RELATED: Baby hit by forklift in accident in Geelong

The boy underwent emergency surgery yesterday as the Victorian WorkCover Authority and Victoria Police investigated the circumstances surrounding the tragic accident.

Victoria Police spokeswoman Creina O’Grady said the baby was crawling on the ­factory floor when he was hit. The father is understood to have not seen the baby.

It is understood that the family — with four young children — had been temporarily living at the Blackley Automotive workshop in Moolap.

Toys on the floor of Blackley Automotive where a nine-month-old baby was injured in an accident with a forklift yesterday. Picture: Eugene Hyland Source: News Corp Australia

They are believed to have only been there for a short time and may have fallen on hard times.

Varian Hancock, who was tinkering about in the workshop next door on Saturday night, said it was a chaotic scene as paramedics raced to saved the young boy’s life.

“There were cars going everywhere,” Mr Hancock said.

“I saw (the boy’s father) running out the front. The look on his face was just devastating.”

Toys, clothes and tools could be seen in a residential part of the workshop yesterday, while a highchair was in the workshop near the forklift on Saturday night.

Mr Hancock, 34, said the boy’s distressed mother went with her son in the ambulance while he tried to support other distressed relatives, telling the child’s uncle that he was “here to help”.

“It’s a tragedy, it’s just disastrous,” Mr Hancock said.

The family was too distressed to comment yesterday.