Haunting moment Aussie dad saves 11-year-old girl from 'attempted abduction'
The young girl was walking home from her school in Melbourne’s northeast on Thursday when she was approached by an unknown man driving a grey Audi Q3 SUV.
A dad walking his daughter home from school has described the terrifying moment an 11-year-old girl begged him for help after an alleged attempted abduction. The girl was heading home from her primary school in Doncaster East, in Melbourne’s northeast suburbs, on Thursday when she was approached by an unknown man driving a grey Audi Q3 SUV.
At around 2.40pm, he stopped a short distance from the 11-year-old and ordered her to get into his car, Victoria Police said on Monday.
The schoolgirl ran and hid in some bushes, but officers claim the man then chucked a U-turn and waited for her to emerge. CCTV vision shows the Audi turning into a nearby street about the time of the alleged incident.
Schoolgirl begs dad for help
Fearing for her safety, the girl then approached Ryan Ghambari as he and his daughter walked up to the front door of their home. Ring doorbell footage shows her repeatedly looking over her shoulder as she tells him her “phone died”.
“When she approached me she was really shaking, she couldn’t talk, she couldn’t even breathe,” Ryan told 9 News.
He said he comforted the young girl before reuniting her with her father who had been driving around searching for her. “He said ‘thank you, thank God you were here’,” Ryan said.
While the 11-year-old was not physically injured, he told 7 News he had never seen someone “terrified and petrified like that”.
Police are now calling on anyone who may have been driving in the area at the time and has dashcam footage to contact them. Information can be submitted confidentially via Crime Stoppers.
“The man is perceived to be Middle Eastern in appearance with tan skin, black hair, a black beard, and a moustache,” police said in the statement. The Audi driver was wearing sunglasses with brown lenses and a grey T-shirt.
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