DETECTIVES who issued an alert to parents when an 11-year-old girl claimed she was attacked in Burnley's Towneley Park today confirmed the investigation had ended because the incident did not occur.

Police were overwhelmed with calls after the schoolgirl reported she had been assaulted by a tattooed man who jumped from a tree and grabbed her as she walked home earlier this month.

Parents were put on red alert following the girl's claims that the man leapt on to her, put his hand over her mouth and carried her dangling 18in from the ground.

However, after further interviews with the girl, police branded the claims as fiction, although officers are still investigating a number of unrelated indecent exposures in the area.

The girl told police she had only managed to escape after kicking him in the groin and running off during the incident at 4.30pm on Wednesday, October 2.

Police said the girl had told them in further interviews that her attacker was wearing a pair of black gloves with red fingertips, possibly a pair of heavy duty industrial gloves.

The girl also told police the man had distinctive tattoos of a love heart with an arrow going through it on his left upper arm, a skull with a knife in the eye on the right upper arm and a curled up snake on his right forearm.

Police launched a huge search for the man and the gloves and mounted plain clothes patrols in the area around the park.

Detective Inspector Mark Maxlow, who led the inquiry, said: "When reports of incidents of this nature are brought to the attention of the police we have to treat them seriously.

"At the time we did believe that something had happened to this girl and as such we had a responsibility to alert the public.

"Following detailed enquiries it has been established that this incident did not occur. However, officers are investigating a number of other incidents in that area in relation to a man seen indecently exposing himself.

"There is currently a police operation underway in the park and enquiries into this are continuing.

"We want to reassure people in the area as we are aware that the attempt abduction has been a cause of concern."