POLICE have praised the actions of a boy after a man tried to lure him into his car.

Steven Asling, 11, of Craufurd Green, Cheriton, Folkestone, was walking home along Risborough Lane from the Cheriton Recreation Ground on Monday afternoon when the driver of the red Rover approached him.

The driver shouted at the youngster to get into the car. When Steven refused, the man shouted again.

Steven refused a second time, then shouted to a friend across the road. The former Cheriton primary pupil, who will go to Pent Valley school in September, ran across the road to his pal and then to the Gurkha Hill shop. After a few minutes, he sprinted home.

The driver sped off in the direction of the Victoria public house. The boy was unhurt, but shaken.

Steven's mother, Catherine, 32, said: "Steven was so frightened and nervous that he couldn't speak.

"I've told him he must always stay in a group and have his mobile phone on him. He'd gone out with a group, but decided to walk home on his own - and hadn't taken his phone out."

Det Sgt John Kemp said: "This lad did exactly the right thing by saying no and running to safety."

The man is in his late thirties or early forties, slim, with brown hair and a ponytail tied in a thin blue hair band. He had a deep voice, bushy eyebrow, a hooped earring in his right ear and a tattoo of a rose on his forearm.

He was wearing blue jeans and a red Adidas T-shirt. If you have information, phone Folkestone police on 01303 850055.