Girl, 8, filmed driving dad's car

Police are investigating a video of an eight-year-old girl driving her dad's car while he urges her to go faster.

The five minute film shows Anastasia Mikulchik being told to "give it some gas" until she's doing more than 60 mph in an Audi A6 saloon in Russia.

The film was originally uploaded onto a local social networking website in St Petersburg by the schoolgirl's mother, Yelena, 27.

Yelena - so small she has to sit on an old anti-freeze bottle to see through the windscreen - gradually speeds up as the car hurtles down a country road.

As other cars speed along the icy road with Anastasia peering over the wheel, dad Dima, 28, urges: "Come on, give it some more gas. Don't be afraid. At least 100 kph."

The girl's father twice has to grab the steering wheel as Anstasia veers across the road.

"Where are you going?. Press the gas. Keep it straight I tell you," he says. At one point mum says: "Anastasia looks like she's in shock."

Anastasia and her father finally swap seats when they start to approach some busy town roads.

Now local police are studying the terrifying footage.

"It is quite blatantly in breach of all traffic laws. We are trying to identify the parents who appear to have put many lives at risk," said a spokesman.