Police want to speak to motorists who may have given a ride to a hitchhiker who is alleged to have attacked a girl as she walked home from school in the western Bay of Plenty.
Te Puke police are appealing for sightings of an Indian man wanted over the attack on the 15-year-old schoolgirl in Paengaroa on Tuesday.
The girl managed to fight the man off and has returned to school.
The alleged offender is described as being tall and skinny.
He was seen in the vicinity of the attack on Gulliver Rd earlier in the day and was also spotted trying to catch a lift on SH2.
NZN