A YOUNG boy bravely fended off a suspected sex offender who grabbed him in an attempted daylight abduction at a North-East railway station.

The seven-year-old had slipped from his mother's hand in a crowd at Newcastle Central Station on Saturday and she thought he had run back to his father, who was walking a few paces behind.

But the youngster was in the clutches of a man he described as having "angry eyes".

As the child realised the stranger was about to drag him away, he pulled back from his grasp and refused to budge.

Police believe his actions saved him from an attempted abduction on the busy footbridge spanning platforms two and three, at 3.45pm.

British Transport Police are liaising with Northumbria Police officers over a convicted sex offender who has been recently released.

The transport police are treating the case as an attempted child abduction.