A DAD has put out a warning to other parents after an apparent abduction attempt on his three-year-old daughter.

Jon Curtis said his mum Julie and daughter Lilly-Rose were feeding the swans from Worcester canal footpath near The Commandery when two men and a woman approached them.

“They kept trying to divert them up the road,” said Mr Curtis. “Trying to guide them up towards the lock and pick the little one up.

“They were trying to push my mum into the water and take the baby.

“Their English was not very good, but they were saying there were more swans near the lock and that they should go up there,” he said.

“They started crowding my mum, pushing her towards the lock – the woman was trying to get towards my daughter to grab her.

Mr Curtis, 26, of Worcester, said the ordeal, which took place around 8pm on Wednesday, lasted a couple of minutes, before Mrs Curtis was able to pick up her granddaughter and run.

She went to Lilly-Rose’s mum’s flat on nearby Dent Lane “panicking and crying”, he said.

Mrs Curtis, 48, has been taking Lilly-Rose down to the canal numerous times recently to feed the baby swans.

Mr Curtis said his mum described the three people as in their late 20s or early 30s and said they fled the area as she ran away.

They then reported the incident to the police and were told an officer went down to the canal.

Mr Curtis, a tyre-fitter, who lives in a different home to his partner and daughter, said the stretch of canal is “at the back of the flats where they live”.

“Over the wall you can see the canal – there are a lot of kids playing outside around the flats at the moment for most of the day.

“I want people to be aware there are people like this lurking about.”

He shared the warning on Facebook the evening the incident took place and, as of Thursday afternoon it had been shared 307 times.

However, police said they did not believe the incident was an attempted kidnap.

Inspector Jamie Francis said: "Contrary to speculation on social media, I want to clarify that this incident is not being treated as an attempted abduction."