THE hunt for a double sex attacker has been stepped up by police, who have taken the unusual step of issuing a photo of a suspect.

Officers want to trace Abdul Hamid Khan, 33, has links to Haslingden, Accrington, Blackpool and the Tower Hamlets and Chadwell Heath areas of London.

Khan, who is originally from Bangladesh, has lived in the area for a short period but currently cannot be traced by police.

Officers launched an investigation after a 43-year-old woman was grabbed from behind and sexually assaulted in Haslingden on Sunday, August 19.

The offence took place between 12.30am and 1am when the woman was walking along Manchester Road.

She saw a man acting suspiciously and as she turned into a back street near to Bank Mill Street and Hope Street before she was assaulted.

The man then fled back in the direction of Manchester Road.

Detectives now also believe the attack could be linked to an earlier sexual assault on a woman, 65, which happened at about 8pm on August 14 on Higher Deardengate, also in Haslingden.

The woman was grabbed by a man and sexually assaulted. Both women were left badly shaken but did not need hospital treatment.

Detective Inspector Marie Haworth, from Burnley CID, said: “We’ve had a good response from the public since we issued some CCTV last week and Mr Khan is somebody we are keen to speak to.

“I would appeal to anyone who knows where he is or who sees him to get in touch with us.

“These are offences which we are treating seriously and we have a dedicated team of detectives following a number of lines of enquiry to try and trace the man responsible “I would also appeal again to anybody that was in the area at the time of the offences that thinks they may have seen the offender or witnessed the incident to contact police.

“I would reassure people that incidents of this nature are rare and as well as a team of detectives investigating we have a number of extra uniformed officers patrolling the area.”

Anyone with any information should call Lancashire Police on 101 quoting log number 0234 of August 19.