Police are hunting a man who attempted to kidnap two children from a rugby league ground in Invercargill yesterday.
The man tried to grab a four-year-old girl and an eight-year-old boy as they played at the sports grounds on the corner of Ness and Ettrick Streets, about 3pm.
He attempted to pull the girl by her arm into a white van, but the boy held her other arm, Constable Simon Knight said.
The man had then grabbed the boy, but the pair had managed to escape when he went to open the van door, Mr Knight told the Southland Times.
Police were today still looking for the man described as a Polynesian, about 1.7 metres tall, in his 50s, clean shaven with straight hair.
He was wearing blue jeans and a T-shirt and was missing a tooth.
The van had tinted windows and mag wheels.
The girl's mother said the children were "shaken" by what had happened.
The children had been taught about stranger danger and the boy's actions were heroic, she told the paper.
"He did really well.
"It's terrifying; it's your worst nightmare."
