A 12-year-old girl was reportedly grabbed outside the gates of an Accrington school.

The teen was leaving St Christopher's CE Academy using her mobile phone when a man grabbed her arm and tried to snatch it from her leaving the girl bruised and shaken up.

Her father Joseph French, 45, said the police took more than an hour to arrive after the incident just before 4pm in Queens Road West.

The managing director, from Clayton-le-Moors, said: "My daughter is in tears.

"A man in his thirties grabbed her arm while she was using her phone.

"She kicked him and screamed at him and he screamed back at her.

"She is heavily bruised.

"I don't know what his intentions were but this is the second child assaulted in two weeks in the Hyndburn area.

"He grabbed a minor and it took police more than an hour to get there.

"We know there is an issue with resources but they did not think it was severe enough to send blue lights."

A police spokesman confirmed they had received a report that somebody had tried to snatch a phone from a pupil and investigations are underway.