AN INVESTIGATION has been launched after the attempted rape of a woman in a town centre churchyard.

Police were called at around 3.45am this morning to the incident in the grounds of Bolton Parish Church, Silverwell Street.

They had received a report of an attempted rape of a 25-year-old woman and a theft.

The victim is now being offered support by specially trained officers and inquiries are ongoing.

The church and surrounding grounds were cordoned off by police this morning while an investigation was carried out.

Officers were on the scene from around 7am and both entrances to the churchyard were taped off while officers waited for crime scene investigators to arrive.

Detectives also inspected CCTV from the church as part of the investigation.

Crime scene investigators arrived on the scene at around 11am and began inspecting the churchyard.

The two officers took pictures of the grounds and also the surrounding area.

The crime scene investigators and the detective left the scene at around 11.30am and the cordon was lifted a short time later.

Bolton Parish Church grounds sealed off by police after attempted rape

Bolton councillor, John Walsh, who is the warden at the church, said: "It is clearly a very serious episode. None of us are ever happy to hear of such events. I just hope the CCTV we have provided can give the police sufficient evidence to prosecute the alleged perpetrator.

"None of us want to see such serious things happen. If our CCTV helps in the process we will be glad."

The church had CCTV installed around three years ago.

Cllr Walsh said: "The reason we had it installed is we had a few incidents of a minor nature. That was the reason we had the CCTV put in, to protect the staff, the church and the visitors. It is 24 hours."

A group who had one of the venues at the church booked for an event had to postpone it as they could not access the church for the majority of the morning.

The church and the grounds were reopened after the cordon was lifted and the afternoon holy communion was able to go ahead as planned.

Anyone with information on the attack is asked to contact police on 101 and quote incident number 276 of 06/07/17.

Alternatively, people can contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.