POLICE have spoken to a man about a suspected child abduction attempt in Sydney and now believe there was an innocent explanation behind it.

An urgent appeal for information was made this week about a man police said attempted to pick up a 19-month-old boy on Tuesday who was in a playground at Tumbalong Park, in Darling Harbour. The boy’s father intervened and the man left the park with two younger men.

The incident was the fifth apparent attempted abduction in the city over the past two weeks and CCTV images of the man officers wanted to speak with were released to media.

This afternoon said the man had now come forward and explained the situation.

Sydney City Crime Manager, Detective Acting Inspector David Gates, said the man attended the station to clarify the situation.

“With the help of an interpreter, the man explained the child looked unsteady on his feet, and he was simply trying to help him. When the boy’s father approached him, he was unable to convey this due to the language barrier and left the area.”

Det Insp Gates said a review of CCTV supported the man’s explanation and police were happy there was no malice involved.

“We have spoken with the boy’s family who indicated they were happy with the outcome of the investigation. While in this case no offence was committed, police need to investigate all reports of this nature and treat them as serious until they are deemed not to be.”

Police are still trying seeking information on four other alarming incidents in Sydney that are keeping parents across the city on edge.

The attempts to snatch the children are causing some parents to consider extreme ways of keeping their kids safe, including putting tracking devices on them and giving them personal alarms.

A man attempted to abduct a 15-month-old boy from the Macquarie Street Mall in Liverpool on May 25.

Two days later, a five-year-old girl screamed after she was indecently assaulted by a man in Glebe in Sydney’s inner west.

On the afternoon of May 30, a three-year-old girl was targeted in a Leichhardt park by a man who took her by the hand before her mother yelled out to stop him. The alleged attacker in Glebe and Leichhardt was described as being of Indian appearance and was wearing similar clothes.

Then at the beginning of June detectives launched a search in Summer Hill for a man after he pulled a knife as he approached an 11-year-old girl and tried to grab her.

She ran to her school to report the incident.

The abduction attempts are fuelling concerns of parents throughout Sydney about how safe their children are.

One woman posted to Facebook: “It’s only a matter of time before one of these scumbags is successful in abducting a child” while another said: “Watch your children everyone it’s my worse nightmare”.

The fear of abductions is fuelling some to even equip children with personal alarms.

“We can never be complacent with our children even if it is a short distance of getting from A to B. I bought our grandchildren a personal alarm from Dick Smith for them to keep on their person. It was designed to clip onto bag, clothing etc and was activated by pulling a pin to set off the alarm. We cannot be too cautious,” Evelyn Hanlon said.

One western Sydney mother said the answer was teaching children to fight back.

“Go and send your kids to self defence classes. There are watches and back packs with alarms on them getting a chip for you child to track them, [it] is horrible but these children can be tracked to find missing kids.”

Many others have spoken about forming vigilante groups to patrol the streets in a desperate attempt to keep neighbourhood children safe, while others told of the steps they had already taken — including putting a harness on a child to taking pictures of suspicious looking people at public spaces like playgrounds and parks.

Police have urged anyone with information about the incidents to come forward.

andrew.koubaridis@news.com.au