An 11-year-old Napier schoolgirl was stalked then grabbed and struck by a man while on her way home from school yesterday afternoon.
"She was very shaken up," Detective Sergeant Tim Smith of the Napier CIB said today. "But she did everything right. She is a brave girl and is back at school today."
Mr Smith said the circumstances of the incident clearly showed the offender was a man police wanted off the streets as soon as possible because he may have been carrying a weapon.
The girl was walking home on her own along Faraday St about 3.30pm and was near Smale Tce when the man pounced.
She had no warning or suspicions she was being followed.
The man grabbed her by the arm and she immediately began to fight back.
At one stage the man struck the girl on the face.
"She managed to break his grip and get away," Mr Smith said.
Distraught, the girl ran straight home, which was only a short distance away, and told her mother what had happened.
The girl was taken to a nearby medical centre for treatment to minor abrasions she received in her struggle to get away.
She told police she saw something shiny in the man's pocket but wasn't sure what it was.
"This was a very serious incident and we are appealing to the public for any information," Mr Smith said.
The offender was described as Maori or Polynesian in his early 30s, about 1.82m (6ft) tall, with facial hair around the jawline.
He was wearing blue jeans, and a jacket over a black hooded sweatshirt with a beanie underneath.
Detectives made door-to-door inquiries appealing for any sightings of the man.
While there had been no other incidents of that kind in the immediate area Mr Smith said there had been similar incidents in Napier and Hastings over the past year.
The most recent was in July when a Caucasian man in his 40s approached a 16-year-old Napier Girls' High School student on her way to school.
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