Police in Ross-on-Wye are appealing for witnesses to an attempted robbery in which it is thought two youths tried to take belongings from an 11-year-old boy's schoolbag.
Officers are particularly keen to hear from a woman who intervened during the incident, which happened at around 3.45pm on Wednesday, 6 March, on Waterside.
The boy was walking along the road when two young men, aged 17 to 19 years old, tugged on his rucksack. One of the men asked if he had anything valuable, before pulling the bag off the child's back and emptying the contents onto the pavement.
The other man then took the boy's mobile phone out of his pocket and dropped it on the ground. At this point, a woman who had witnessed the incident came over to see if the boy was ok and the two youths ran off.
PC Bee Masters is investigating the incident. She said: "While we are treating this as an attempted robbery, I would like to stress that the boy wasn't hurt in the incident, wasn't threatened with any violence and had nothing stolen from him.
"However, he was left extremely upset by the incident and it is important that we find the youths responsible.
"That is why we really need to speak with the woman who intervened as she may have more information about the pair and be able to give us more details about what happened.
"The two men are described as white and were wearing dark clothing, with hoods over their heads and scarves covering the bottom half of their faces.
"I would urge the woman who went to help the boy to come forward, as well as anyone else who was in the area at the time and saw two youths matching the description above."
Anyone with information can call PC Masters on 0300 333 3000 quoting reference 164S 070313. Alternatively, people can also contact the independent charity Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.