A MAN tried to drag a young mother into the back of a van as she was on her way to work.

Nicole Owen had just left her home and was walking along Back Clyde Street, off Halliwell Road, at 7am on Monday as she went to catch her bus.

As the 21-year-old walked past the white transit-style van, she heard the side door open.

She said: “I heard the door open and someone tried dragging me in. I pulled away and he grabbed my coat. I pulled away again and ran to a house where someone rang the police.”

Miss Owen, who has a 19-month-old baby girl, said the man did not say anything during the incident and she was too panicked to scream.

To make her escape, Miss Owen dashed across Halliwell Road, deciding the smartest thing to do would be to head to a busy street.

She knocked on the door of the house in Maplewood Gardens and the family there called for help.

Miss Owen said: “It was really scary. When I first got to the house I was too shaken up to speak.”

Police went to see Miss Owen on Monday afternoon and also looked to see if there was any CCTV in the area and talk to anyone who may have seen something. Miss Owen, who was on her way to her job as a support worker assisting people with disabilities, said: “I suffer from anxiety really badly and it has set me back.

“I just started going out on my own for work and stuff.”

As she was taken so by surprise by the incident she did not manage to get a proper look at the vehicle or the man who tried to pull her into the van.

She said: “He was quite stocky and Asian. I didn’t really see his face. My first reaction was to just get away, it was awful. It all happened so fast.”

The incident comes just weeks after a similar incident in Wilkinson Road, on the Oldhams Estate in Sharples, when two girls were approached by two men in a white van.

The men demanded that the girls got into the vehicle but they were able to escape unharmed and hid in a nearby bush before calling the police.It is not clear whether the incidents are linked.

Police confirmed they were called to Halliwell Road on Monday to a report of an attempted abduction and were working to establish the circumstances surrounding the incident.