POLICE are looking for a man who tried to lure a teenage girl by laying down in the road and claiming he needed an ambulance.

Before the attack, the man had been seen eating McDonald’s fast food near the chain’s restaurant in High Road North, Laindon.

As the terrified 16-year-old girl walked past, on her way home from a friend’s house, he followed her.

She crossed the road to try to get away, but he followed and began calling to her. He then lay down in the road and said he needed an ambulance – although there appeared to be nothing wrong with him.

Her mother said: “The man then lay on the floor and called her over.

“She didn’t go over to him but instead started running.

“He started running after her.

“Luckily, a taxi driver saw him running and trying to grab her, so the driver stopped and stayed with my daughter until we arrived.”

The man made off as soon as the cabbie pulled over, leaving the girl shaken, but unharmed.

The attacker was white, in his late thirties to early forties, 5ft 10ins to 5ft 11ins tall and chubby.

He had brown hair, and was wearing a white top and green combat trousers and was walking a tan-coloured dog.

He was said to speak with a Basildon accent.

Anyone with information about the incident, at 9pm on June 9, is asked to call police on 101.