THE mother of one of the boys approached by a would-be abductor at a York school today praised the bravery of the three young friends.

She appealed for more information to catch the man who approached the three youngsters on the playing field at Hob Moor Junior School.

The woman, who did not want to be named to protect the identity of her nine-year-old son, said the three boys had been playing football in the field on Wednesday afternoon.

The man approached the field from behind a metal fence and asked the youngsters if they had seen someone.

They went over to him and spoke to him and as they turned to walk away he reached his hands through the bars of the fence and grabbed at one of the boys and pulled him to the fence.

The mum said: "My son then picked up a big stone and hit him on the hand to make him let go.

"The three of them then really stuck together. They started running away because he was running on the other side of the fence.

"They ran towards the after-school club and the man then came into the school grounds. My son lost his shoe at one point and his other friend ran back for him. I'm quite proud of all of them."

She said the man had stood watching once the children had got back to the club until one of the other parents came to pick them up.

"It was really frightening. He was a stranger to them and I would appeal to anyone to come forward with information."

She said police officers had spoken to her son last night, but a North Yorkshire force spokeswoman said today there was no new information that could be released and no description of the man was available.

The head teacher of Hob Moor Junior School was unavailable for comment, but he spent yesterday compiling a report on the incident which will be handed over to police.

School governor Rob Fairclough said: "I have spoken to the head teacher about it and it does appear to be a very worrying incident.

"I believe the pupils at the school have been warned to be very aware of what has happened and not to talk to any strangers. That is standard procedure when anything like this happens."

A City of York Council spokesman said all of the city's schools had been warned to be on alert.

Updated: 11:28 Friday, March 15, 2002