Police are appealing for witnesses following an attempted burglary of a 93-year-old woman's house in Appleton Road, Longworth.

A tool was used to force open a front window of the house; however the burglar was unable to gain entry due to a secondary sliding window inside the outer one.

The attempted break-in happened some time between 10am on Wednesday and 10am on Friday.

PC Paul Reece of the Vale of White Horse Priority Crime Team said: “The neighbours of the elderly woman were visited by a man posing as an engineer on Thursday at around 7pm.

“The man asked the neighbour to turn off their water mains, saying that the pressure was too high. The neighbour refused, closed her door and the man ran off.

“I want to speak to anyone that saw this man in the area at the time. He is described as white, aged between 45 and 50, and about 5ft 7in tall. He had a stocky build and wore a dark coloured woollen hat.

If you have any information regarding this incident, please contact Thames Valley Police on 0845 8 505 505, the 24-hour Thames Valley Police non-emergency number. If you don’t want to speak to police or give your name, please call the Crimestoppers charity anonymously on 0800 555 111.