A COMMUNITY shocked by a sex attack on a 15-year-old girl is making urgent moves to improve security in the park where it happened.

Money had already been ear marked to improve lighting in Roe Lee Park, Blackburn, but the incident on Wednesday afternoon has made putting the measures in place a priority.

Police said the attack was the latest in a line of similar incidents across Blackburn.

It prompted officers to advise women to avoid walking alone after dark, or to carry torches and attack alarms. The girl, heading home from school, was followed for a few minutes before the man overtook her and waited by the entrance to the park.

As she passed, he pulled her into some bushes before putting his hand up her skirt. The girl managed to kick him between the legs and scream, enabling her to get away.

Roe Lee Park has been associated with teenage yobs in recent times, but residents, the council and police had been working hard to open it up to families again.

The council has ear-marked money to improve security in the park - cash which was expected to be released in the new year.

Coun Michael Law-Riding, of the Roe Lee ward, said: "It is very concerning. There is a lot of work going on in the park to get it sorted out.

"Perhaps there needs to be more police patrols there or lighting so they won't try and do this in the park.

"Hopefully we will be able to get the money in the next few months and get the work to improve lighting started."

The schoolgirl described her attacker as a light-skinned Asian man in his late 20s who was about 5ft 10in tall and of medium build.

He was wearing light blue, boot-cut jeans, a cream jumper with two blue horizontal stripes and a baseball cap. He had a distinctive thin moustache running round his mouth.

Anyone with any information should call Blackburn police on 01254 51212.