A SOUTHAMPTON mother has described the man who tried to abduct one of her children as 'sick in the head'.

The 26-year-old mother from Swaythling said the man should not be wandering the streets and that she hopes the police are able to catch him.

It was the woman's young stepdaughter a man tried to snatch in broad daylight last month.

It was one of three attempted abductions of children in the same area within three weeks of each other. As reported in the Daily Echo police believe different people carried out each of the attempted snatches and are not linking them. Detectives are urging people in the area not to panic.

One of the victims, a 12-year-old girl, was walking along Portswood Road when the man approached her in the street and tried to talk to her.

Immediately concerned, the girl went into a nearby One Stop in an attempt to get away.

After waiting there for several minutes, she walked out of the shop and was crossing the road at a zebra crossing near to Mayfield Road when he tried to grab her.

The schoolgirl, who has not been identified, managed to avoid his grasp and escape, while her attacker jumped into the passenger side of a car and sped off.

The girl's stepmother, who has three other children of her own, told the Daily Echo: "I had sent her down to the shop to get a tin of beans and she came back and this had happened. I couldn't believe it."

She added: "You never think it is going to happen to one of yours - you always think it only ever happens to someone else."

"Anybody who can try and take a child is sick in the head. I hope they catch him. He should not be wandering the streets."

Since the attempted abduction, she said her stepdaughter has been quite tearful.

"She has been more tearful than normal," she said. "She doesn't talk about it but then she is never one for talking about how she feels. She keeps it all bottled up."

She added that the youngster has not been out very much since the incident.

"I keep her with me all the time now," she said.

"Before, when she wasn't at school, she used to go out first thing in the morning and I would not see her until teatime. Now she hardly goes out at all."

Detectives investigating the attempted abduction are urging anyone with any information about the attacker, or who witnessed the incident that happened just before midday on Sunday June 27, to come forward.

They are particularly interested in talking to a group of eight or nine young men who the young girl ran past as she was escaping her attacker.

Det Con Colin Squibb of Bitterne CID, said: "We are very anxious to speak to these young men as they may have significant information relevant to this inquiry. The young girl ran past them as she ran home immediately afterwards and felt that they would have seen what happened."

The man who tried to grab the girl is described as being in his mid 30s, fairly tall, with black tightly curled Afro hair. He was described by the girl as Asian, but the police have said that his hair suggests he is either Afro-Caribbean or African.

He was wearing a waist-length dark lightweight jacket with a zip, jeans, a cream shirt and light coloured trainers.

He fled in a car which is described as a small dark blue four-door car with tinted windows, which drove off at speed up Mayfield Road.

Anyone with any information about the incident or the two other attempted abductions that happened on June 17 and July 1 can contact Det Con Squibb at Bitterne CID quoting Operation Streatham on 0845 045 4545.