Police have released snippets of a letter purportedly written by a man who allegedly tried to abduct a nine-year-old girl as she rode her bike to school in Melbourne’s outer north-east.

The excerpts released on Monday show the words “she still continued” and “explained to her”, in the hopes his handwriting could help identify him.

The young girl was riding her bike along Skeeter Drive in Mernda about 8.30am on November 14 when the man confronted her.

“She still continued” one snippet released by Victoria Police said. Photo: Victoria Police

“When she’s crossed the road she was approached by an unknown male, he sort of grabbed her handlebars to stop her riding off, engaged her in some conversation and took control of her bike and managed to lead her away from her direction to school and towards a park,” Acting Detective Sergeant Graeme Wassell told 3AW Radio on Monday.

The other said, “explained to her”. Photo: Victoria Police

She managed to run away from the man, who then dropped the bike and fled the scene on foot.

The girl did not suffer any injuries.

Police have since received a letter from someone purporting to be the man.

“In that he basically tries to, I guess, outline his reasons for doing it and justify his actions, and it is still quite a scary scenario,” Acting Sergeant Wassell said.

“Essentially he’s trying to say that he was teaching people a lesson, no harm intended.”

He said it was lucky the girl had received a call from her mother, who was waiting for her to call saying she’d made it to school.

“So the mum called the young girl, and the young girl’s told her mum what was happening,” Acting Sergeant Wassell said.

He is described as about 50 years old. Photo: Victoria Police

“Mum’s told her to quickly run away from him, so the girl’s left the bike and run away and luckily unharmed – obviously quite upset by it all, but unharmed.”

He said it was frightening to think about, noting it was a reasonably new bike and the girl may have worried about ditching it.

“You can’t imagine what’s going on in the mind of a girl that age when a man is leading her into quite a big park, which leads into bushland.”

Police also released CCTV footage of a man wearing a blue jacket or jumper they would like to speak to.

He is described as about 50 years old.

Anyone with information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.