Man with binoculars pulled knife on girls

Napier police are appealing for information after a middle-aged man was seen "acting suspiciously" near a primary school.

The man, in his 50s or 60s, was seen watching two young girls through binoculars from a parked vehicle outside Marewa School on Wednesday about 5.30pm, police said.

When the girls later walked past the vehicle and down an alleyway between Barker and Rutherford Roads, the man approached them with a small pocket knife.

The pair fled and hid behind bushes on a nearby property.

Police described the man as a European with short, straight white hair with some "curly parts".

He was wearing a faded blue-green short sleeved chequered shirt and three-quarter greyish or white pants.

His vehicle was a "square-shaped" silver or grey four-door Honda.

- NZPA