Police are investigating claims that a man attempted to kidnap two young girls in Clayhall.

Shortly before 6pm on Wednesday, September 16 a 12-year-old girl and her sister, eight, noticed a man get out of a black car on Fullwell Avenue who then started following them.

As soon as they noticed the man, they started running. They said the man then shouted at them to get in his car.

Two women heard the commotion and came out of their house and then the man got back in his car and drove off towards the High Street.

The girls’ mother Lisa Marie described the man as Asian, between 40 and 50 years old, and said he was wearing a green top and black trousers.

Lisa, who has lived in Fullwell Avenue for the last 11 years, said her girls were “petrified” and were so shaken they could barely speak to the police officers about the incident.

A spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police said: “Police were called at 5:59pm on Wednesday, September 16 to reports of a man acting suspiciously on Fullwell Avenue.

“Officers attended and spoke to the mother of two girls who reported they had been walking down the road when a man told the girls to get into his car.

“The man is then reported to have left the scene in a vehicle.

“No arrests have been made and enquiries continue.”

People living in the area have told the Recorder that crime has got much worse in recent years with open drug dealing taking place at night down the road near the entrance to Claybury Park.

One resident, who lives in Ravensbourne Gardens, said she gets verbally abused by people doing drugs outside her home and that it was so noisy she goes to her son’s house on weekends just to get a full night’s sleep.

She described living there as “torture” and said the area outside her home is a “young person’s paradise at night.”

Another resident said the area is so dangerous she doesn’t let go of her five-year-old granddaughter’s hand until she drops her off at school.

She said: “I moved here 35 years ago thinking I moved my children to a safe area but in the last year and a half it’s gotten very scary.

“The crime has got so bad it’s unbelievable.”

Anyone with information about the attempted kidnapping is asked to call police on 101 quoting reference 6742/16Sep.