Police are hunting a man who grabbed a 14-year-old girl as she walked in an alleyway and indecently assaulted her.

The teen was walking in Rifle Butts Alley, Treadwell Road, Epsom, at about 8am on Wednesday when the attacker grabbed her from behind, shoved her against a fence and indecently assaulted her, Surrey Police said.

Her assailant is described as white, in his late 30s or early 40s, 5ft 7in and of an average build with short dark hair, brown eyes and a round face. He was wearing denim shorts, a light blue tee-shirt and trainers.

The girl was on the phone to a friend at the time.

Detective Constable Lewis Flanagan, who is investigating the incident, said: “We are carrying out a number of enquiries and would like to speak to anyone with any information as a matter of urgency.

"We will be speaking to local schools to ask them to remind pupils of some simple precautions they can take to avoid becoming a victim of a similar offence.

"We would however, like to reassure the local community that incidents of this nature are extremely unusual and that we are doing everything we can to establish exactly what has happened and identify the offender responsible.”

Officers have released an image of a man they want to speak to, above.

Anyone with information should call police on 101, quoting P16209673.