SCHOOLS in York have been put on stranger alert after a man approached a young girl shortly after he was spotted watching children outside a primary school.

Police said the man, who was driving a white van, approached the girl as she walked home from school in Haxby at about 4pm yesterday.

He asked her for her telephone number and the phone numbers of other children.

Her worried father called police when she got home and told him of the incident.

About half an hour earlier a pupil reported seeing the man, who was said to be aged in his late fifties, 6ft tall, with grey hair and a big nose, standing outside Huntington Primary School, in North Moor Road, watching pupils. The man was wearing a striped or checked shirt.

The school had already written a letter home to parents that day, warning them to be vigilant, after receiving a report that morning about a similar man in the New Earswick area.

An automatic telephone system is used to alert all schools and nurseries in the city to any such incidents. Information is also passed to nearby Neighbourhood Watch schemes.

Roger Jackson, headteacher at Huntington Primary, said: "There is always good reason for parents to be alert to the dangers, and because of the sightings there is possibly reason for them to be even more alert than they would normally be."

He said the school would be reminding pupils about "stranger danger".

PC John Palmer, youth action officer with the Safer York Partnership, said: "Sometimes there can be a serious approach and other times it could be somebody who is a bit eccentric and has scared the children, but we can't afford to take any chances."

Anyone with information on the man should call police in York on 631321.

Updated: 15:06 Wednesday, October 03, 2001