Police fear fleeing girl may be sex-attack victim

Police in West Auckland were last night searching for a distressed girl seen running half-naked from a toilet block with blood on her lower body, followed by a man.

The girl, aged about 9, was seen by a cleaner leaving the toilets near the playground in Neville Power Memorial Park, Te Atatu South, about 10am yesterday.

As the cleaning woman called out "maintenance" and prepared to enter the toilets, the girl came running out of the women's toilet, weeping.

She had bare feet, blonde plaits and wore only a pale blue polo shirt which came half-way down her naked buttocks. There was blood on the lower half of her body.

A local resident, who wanted to be known only as Sarah, said the cleaner told her a man in jeans and a check shirt came out of the toilet after the girl.

As he ran towards a car, the cleaner ran after the girl, but failed to find her in the park, surrounded by trees, homes and several exits.

Returning to the toilet block, near the park's Kirrie Ave entrance, the cleaner found blood in the cubicle.

She called the police, who began a major search.

Students at nearby Rangeview Intermediate say they saw a crying girl wearing a blue top run through their school about noon, but that has yet to be confirmed by police. There have been no further sightings.

Detective Sergeant Murray Free of Henderson said a large number of officers were searching for the girl.

"What's been described to us is obviously very serious, a possible sex offence against a young girl, and we can't find her. It's as serious as it gets."

Mr Free confirmed blood found in the toilet block was being analysed by staff of the Institute of Environmental Science and Research (ESR).

Police are appealing for any sightings, and for parents with children matching the girl's description to contact them.

Six local primary and intermediate schools were able to account for every female student. Police are also contacting schools in the wider West Auckland area.