New London — City police say there was an attempted abduction Tuesday afternoon in the area of Crystal Avenue and State Pier Road.

A 12-year-old boy was walking down the steps of Fulton Park about 4:16 p.m., when a man wearing a ski mask, gray sweatshirt, black pants and hiking boots reportedly grabbed the boy by the wrists and dragged him toward a vehicle parked on Crystal Avenue. The boy was able to escape the man's grip and ran away. The suspect fled to the vehicle and left the area, police said in a news release late Tuesday night.

The boy told officers that the man's vehicle was a four-door Silver Honda, with a blue and gray license plate with palm trees on either side of the number, according to the release. Officers swarmed the area but did not locate the man or the vehicle, the release said.

Police are continuing to investigate.

Tuesday's attempted abduction was the second such incident reported in the State Pier Road area in recent weeks.

On Aug. 3, a 9-year-old girl reported that a man in a pickup truck approached her as she was walking up the driveway to her family's State Pier Road residence, saying that her mother had told him to pick her up. The girl told police that the man's hands were touching his “private parts” when he opened the door of the truck and he tried to get her inside the vehicle.

The unidentified suspect in that case was described as a white man of medium build, possibly between 30 and 40 years old, with facial hair and eyeglasses. He was wearing a dark-colored shirt and a blue Nike hat. Police said the pickup truck was possibly a gray or silver early 2000 Dodge Ram. The vehicle had whitewall tires with silver rims, side/step rails on both sides, circular decals on the upper right and upper left rear window and white paint on the inside of the rear tailgate.