Police are on high alert for a white van after a second attempted daylight child abduction in Melbourne in a fortnight.
A 14-year-old schoolgirl was forced to flee to a nearby park after a stranger stopped next to her on Spring Street in Tullamarine, in the city’s west, at around 5.45pm on Wednesday.
The man reportedly asked the girl where she lived before telling her to get into his white van.
She ran to a nearby park full of families and the man left.
It is understood the man drove west along Spring Street before making a U-turn and driving east along Broadmeadows Road.
Police were alerted after the girl told her mother about the ordeal when she got home.
According to detectives, the girl was left shaken after the attempted abduction.
A man tried to kidnap a 14-year-old girl in Melbourne on Wednesday (pictured is a computer-generated image of the man police want to speak to)
The man reportedly asked the young woman where she lived before telling her to get into his white van.
“It is very distressing, an alarming incident, and I won’t go into detail about how she is emotionally at the moment, but understandably she is a young woman and this is quite frightening for her,” Detective Chief Constable Grace Botterill said. he told The Herald Sun.
The teenager’s ordeal follows a similar incident in which a man also driving a white van reportedly attempted to kidnap an 11-year-old boy.
He was walking home from school along Halley Street in Blackburn, in Melbourne’s east, when a man approached him about 3.45pm on November 18.
The man told the boy that his mother had asked him to pick him up.
The boy refused to get into the van and fled.
Police do not believe the two incidents are related.
Detectives have released a computer-generated photograph of a man officers want to speak to in connection with the attempted kidnapping of the girl on Wednesday.
He is described as Middle Eastern, in his 50s, and spoke with a heavy accent.
Anyone with information, CCTV or dashcam footage or who witnessed any of the incidents is asked to contact Crime Stoppers.