TWO little girls snatched while playing outside their homes were subjected to a terrifying 15-minute journey at the hands of a pervert. The petrified schoolgirls were grabbed by the man who marched them through a built-up area to Gillingham Park.

The older of the girls, aged nine, broke away from his grasp as he tried to force her to perform an obscene act on him in a wooded area of the park. She ran out of the park gate and crouched behind a car, keeping a protective eye on her tearful six-year-old friend before she was released moments later.

After the man fled in the opposite direction across the park, the girls ran home to relay their experience to their parents.

The ordeal started when the man, aged between 40 and 45, enticed the playmates from the doorstep of one of their homes a week ago at around 7.30pm by asking them if they wanted to see his pet dog. Gripping them by the wrists, he marched them at speed as they tried to struggle free, along Seaview Road towards Stopford Road, across Nelson Road, into Borough Road, into Napier Road and then into Oxford Road.

He took them into the park and he headed for a wooded area where he told them he lived - which was challenged by the nine-year-old.

It was there that he asked them to "touch" him.

Apart from some bruising to their wrists, neither of the girls was physically hurt.

Police are advising parents to be aware of where their children are when they are away from home and to be watchful of both their children and the children they are playing with. The man is described as of thin build, about 5ft 8ins tall with a long, pointed nose and wrinkly face.

He was wearing a light grey, pork pie-style hat with four dark grey stripes, a short leather or plastic black jacket with the zip undone, a long, round-neck, orange-brown jumper which came below his trouser pockets and was elasticated at the bottom and light blue jeans. He was carrying a dark, blue plastic bag and wore a wedding ring.