POLICE were today hunting a hooded sex attacker who forced a 14-year-old girl into woods near her home and seriously assaulted her.

The girl was on her way home from her newspaper delivery round when she was confronted by a man wearing a black knitted ski mask.

He forced her on to a piece of spare land in Heald Road, Burnley, and subjected her to what police called a "serious sexual assault."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.