Gardaí probe child abduction attempt

GARDAÍ in Limerick are investigating the attempted abduction of a 10-year-old girl as she walked home from evening Mass.

The incident happened at around 9.15pm on Sunday night as the girl made her way home to Hyde Avenue from Our Lady of Lourdes Church.

Supt Frank O’Brien, Roxboro, said a number of people in a van approached the girl near the Greenpark shopping centre at the junction of Childers Road and Ballinacurra.

A woman in the van opened a door and reached out to try and grab the girl, he said. Fortunately she managed to run off and alerted her parents.

The mother of the girl said: “I am now afraid to let her out after this.”

It is unclear if a man in the van also tried to grab the girl. The mother said: “My daughter said they had foreign accents, and had never seen them before.”

As the incident happened, a man who knew the girl came on the scene and ran to her assistance.

The girl’s mother added: “She is terrified now to do anything. Even when the gardaí came to take a statement she was hiding because she was too afraid. She thinks they will come back to get her.”