A 15-YEAR-OLD schoolgirl was subjected to a serious sex attack as she walked home yesterday teatime.

The incident has prompted police to advise women not to walk alone and to carry torches and attack alarms when out after dark.

The teenager was attacked in bushes close to Roe Lee Park at around 4.30pm in what police today described as the latest in a line of similar attacks across Blackburn.

The girl told detectives she was attacked by an Asian man who had begun walking close to her while she was on Whalley New Road.

After tracking her along Ruby Street and Cornelia Street, he began walking next to her along Towpath Street before overtaking her as they approached Roe Lee Park Road.

He then stood in the entrance of Roe Lee Park, before pulling the girl into bushes and putting his hands up her skirt.

The girl kicked him between the legs and screamed and the man ran off.

Insp Steve Haworth, of Blackburn Police, said: "The teenager did all the right things and fortunately she wasn't badly harmed.

"This isn't the first attack like this to have occurred in Blackburn in recent months so we would urge women walking by themselves to take precautions."

The schoolgirl described her attacker as a light-skinned Asian man in his late 20s who was about 5ft 10ins to 6ft tall. His voice was low and he spoke with broken English. He had a distinctive thin moustache running round his mouth.