A SIXTEEN-year-old girl has been left shaken after what police say was an attempt to kidnap her.

Thames Valley Police officers have today said that a man approached her at around 11.25pm on Sunday and asked her to get into his vehicle.

He touched her on the shoulder opposite the junction of Gladstone Road and London Road in Oxford before he asked her to get into the vehicle, the force said in a statement.

Officers say she pushed him and ran away.

 

Minutes earlier, at around 11.15pm on Sunday, the girl was standing at a bus stop in St Clement’s Street, close to the junction with Caroline Street.

What police say was the same man approached her in what is thought to have been a dark car, opened the windows and asked her to get inside a number of times. She refused, police say.

Another man was standing at the bus stop using his phone at the time and spoke to the girl.

Police say that the girl got on the number 8 bus which travelled up London Road and they say it was when she got off that the man in the car - who was wearing dark trousers and a dark hooded top - approached her again and attmpted to kidnap her.

The girl was uninjured but left shaken, police said in a statement today.

A 29-year-old man from Oxford was later arrested on suspicion of attempted kidnap and has been released on police bail until January 7 pending further enquiries.

Anyone with information about the incident should call the Thames Valley Police 24-hour non-emergency number 101 and ask to speak Det Con Sangha.

Alternatively, call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.