Northern Territory Police have arrested a man for an alleged abduction attempt in Katherine yesterday.

Around 6:30pm, it is alleged a man approached a child as she was walking to the toilets at an oval along the Stuart Highway, Katherine.

The man allegedly grabbed her arm and attempted to drag her to another location.

The young girl broke away and ran back to her parents to report the incident.

Police deployed to the area and apprehended a 19-year-old man, who currently remains in custody.

Detective Senior Sergeant Michael Ordelman said “This was a frightening incident for the young girl and NT Police commend her for running back to known adults and immediately telling them what had happened.

“Detectives are in the initial stages of investigations and we are urging anyone who was in attendance last night, who has information, to make contact with police on 131 444 and quote reference P24206741.

“We believe members of the public may have recorded footage of the man and we are requesting people send that footage through to detectives for evaluation.”

An online portal has been created for members of the public to supply relevant footage.

NT Police would encourage all parents to reiterate the three R’s to their children:

• Recognise – Teach children to recognise early warning signs of inappropriate or dangerous behaviour.
• React – After recognising that they are unsafe, children should react to the situation by using key words such as, stop, leave me alone, no or don’t touch me, and to get away as quickly as possible from the danger before finding a safe place or person.
• Report – Once they are away from immediate danger, children should report what happened. This can be to their teacher, friends , family or the Police.