PUPILS were this morning avoiding the normally busy footpath at the centre of the investigation.

Usually the walkway is filled with chattering voices of groups of schoolchildren, dog walkers and people on their way to work.

Today only a handful of people were using the wood-lined pathway. The only noise audible was the rumbling of cars using the nearby M3 flyover.

Schoolchildren were instead taking a longer route via Leigh Road and Chestnut Avenue.

Twenty-four hours after the attack happened anyone using the walkway was being questioned by uniformed officers. By 9am dozens of people, primarily dog walkers using the path and cycle way, had been spoken to.

Officers leading the investigation said they were also keen to trace any pupils wearing maroon jumpers who used the pathway or were in the area at the time of the attack.

Yesterday letters were given out to the pupils advising them not to walk home alone in the wake of the assault.

Alderman Quilley head teacher Richard Kelly said: "We are working closely with the police today. More steps will be taken with pupils before they leave the school. We have told pupils to be aware of safety, and we are waiting for more advice from police." At Nightingale Primary School class teachers spoke to all pupils this morning. Head teacher Simon Copper-Hind said: "We are very conscious of it and we have warned parents."

Parents dropping children off at Cherbourg Primary School in Cranbury Road were also shocked by the news. Mum of three Debbie Targett of Market Street, Eastleigh, said: "It's a bit too close to home. I know the footpath and I don't think I would walk there on my own.

"It makes me worry for my kids, the oldest is ten. It is a dangerous world with all these things happening."

Rachael Mauger, mum-of-five of Falklands Road said: "I have two teenagers at Alderman Quilley and I always drive them to school. I will not let them walk through that footpath, I am never going to put them at risk like that."

News of the attack was the only topic of conversation at nearby shops.

At the Co-op on Falklands Road customers and staff were discussing the attack and officers had been in to collect the shop's CCTV footage because the girl had apparently been into the shop on her way to the footpath.

Other regular path users expressed their shock at the news.

Mary-Ann Rayner, 85, who walks her dog on the footpath every day said: "There is always a lot of people at this time of the day. I can't understand that nobody had seen anything. The police interviewed me last night but I didn't see anything."

Rene Lebbern in her mid 60s said: "We have walked here for five years. Normally you have crowds of children walking together and it's a very well used path at this time of day."

Ian Hatch greenkeeper at Fleming Park golf course that also bordered the pathway said: "Yesterday was no different from any other morning. The morning it happened was wet so it was possibly a bit quieter. I personally walk around this area of the course at this time every day but there was nothing different from normal."