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Two girls are being hailed as heroes after scaring off a man attempting to abduct a five-year-old at a bus stop in rural Taranaki.
The boy was waiting for the school bus at Okato, 26km southwest of New Plymouth, on Thursday morning when a "strange" man in a car stopped and tried to force him into the vehicle.
But the two girls, aged eight and five, grabbed hold of the boy and screamed as loud as they could, scaring off the would-be abductor.
Constable Richard Corry, of Okato, praised the girls' actions and appealed for any witnesses.
