Police are appealing for witnesses after a nine-year-old girl was approached by a man in Port Stephens.
The girl was dropped off at her school by a neighbour on Wahgunyah Road in Nelson Bay yesterday morning.
She got out of the car and turned around to grab her bag, when a man grabbed her.
The neighbour told the man to go away and he walked off.
The man is described as being Asian in appearance, about 168-centimetres tall with a chubby build and moles on his cheeks.
Anyone with information should contact Crime Stoppers.