A man has been arrested for allegedly trying to abduct a child from an oval in Katherine, with the girl having broken free of the man before running back to tell her parents what had happened, NT Police said.

Detective Senior Sergeant Michael Ordelman said in a statement that about 6:30pm Thursday, police allege a man approached a girl – whose age was not given – as she was walking to the toilets at an oval along the Stuart Highway in the town.

“The man allegedly grabbed her arm and attempted to drag her to another location,” Snr Sgt Ordelman said.

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

Snr Sgt said police went to the area and arrested a 19-year-old man, who is still in custody.

“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,” Snr Sgt Ordelman said.

“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.”

Snr Sgt Ordelman said NT Police are encouraging 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.

Police are asking any who has any information about the attempted abduction to call them on 131 144 (quote reference P24206741).

An online portal has been created for people to supply relevant footage. Scan the QR code below to open the portal.