Primary school students approached by man in sixth Victorian child abduction attempt

Two Melbourne primary school students have been approached by a man driving a white van in what is believed to be another child abduction attempt.

The two year 6 students were walking home from a primary school in the city’s northwest on Wednesday, when the attempted abduction took place, Sunrise reported.

Victoria Police said they were “aware of a social media post about students being approached by a male in a white van in Montmorency on December 12” but had not yet received a report.

It follows a spate of similar attempts across the Victorian capital over the past month, and one in Geelong last week.

Four children aged between 10 and 15 have been targeted by men driving white vans in the suburbs of Tullamarine, Blackburn, Doncaster and Boronia, with the first incident occurring on November 18.

And the Geelong Advertiser reported last Friday that a teenager waiting for an Uber ride outside a Lovely Banks home was approached by another man in a white van who demanded he get in.

In each of the Melbourne incidents, which are believed to be unrelated, men driving white vans pulled up beside the children while they were walking, some of them to and from school, and asked them to get in.

So far, all of the children have managed to get away unharmed.

On Friday, Melbourne reporter Teegan Dolling spoke about the latest abduction attempt.

“This is growing incredibly concerning, the sixth abduction attempt,” Dolling said.

The series of incidents began on November 18 when a driver pulled up next to an 11-year-old boy walking home from school in Blackburn.

He told the boy his mother had sent him to give him a lift home, however drove off when the child declined.

A 14-year-old girl was targeted the following week on the other side of town in Tullamarine.

She was walking west on Spring St on November 27 when an unknown man began following her in his white Toyota Hiace before pulling up beside her.

The man asked the girl where she lived and then asked her in to get into the van, however she ran off and sought refuge at a nearby park.

On Monday December 2, a teenage girl was forced to run into the Doncaster Shopping Centre for help after she was approached nearby by a man in a white van on Saxon St about 9.40am.

Police are also investigating an incident on Landscape Dr in Boronia the next day when a 10-year-old boy was approached about 8.30am.

Last week Acting Superintendent Paul Cripps described the incidents as “very, very concerning”.

He said at this stage it was not believed any of the incidents are linked and that police were looking for four different offenders and four different vans.

This is due to the descriptions of the men and vehicles given to police by the children, Cripps said.

He acknowledged, however, the children’s descriptions may not be entirely accurate and that police were still “actively” looking for any connections.

CCTV of vans seen in Blackburn and Tullamarine around the time of the incidents has been released by police.

There is also a computer-generated image of the Blackburn suspect showing a Caucasian-looking man with dirty, matted, blond hair between the age of 30 and 40.

The man involved in the Tullamarine abduction attempt has been described as Middle Eastern in appearance and about 50 years old with a thick accent.

It’s unclear what the men involved in the Doncaster and Boronia abduction attempts looked like.

Anyone with any information about any of the incidents has been urged to contact Crime Stoppers.