WOONSOCKET — The police are investigating the attempted abduction of a 15-year-old girl not far from Landmark Medical Center and the high school Tuesday morning.

Acting Chief Eric. L. Croce said the girl was forced into a car on Elm Street at about 8:30 a.m. but was able to jump out of the car and run away for help when it slowed for traffic near Wood Street. She was unhurt, he said.

The girl was on her way to school, walking on Elm Street when the car approached her near Jervis Street, Croce said. The man started a conversation, asking her questions and when she responded, he stopped the car near Jervis Street, got out and forced her inside the vehicle.

The girl was not in the car long enough to have a significant conversation with the man, Croce said, because she jumped out soon after being forced into the car. She was able to provide a general description of the man and the car, but didn’t have time to get specifics on the vehicle.

Detectives and patrol officers were fanning out over the neighborhood yesterday morning and afternoon in an effort to find more information about the man, Croce said. The police are particularly interested in talking to anyone who might have been in the vicinity and seen something.

Supt. Maureen B. Macera said school officials were told of the incident at about 1 p.m. She said they drafted a letter to go home with the students immediately.

“We ask that all parent/guardians discuss the serious nature of this situation and that if their children are walkers, we ask that the children walk in groups to and from school,” Macera said in the letter. It was also distributed at parent-teacher conference night. The school system did not have a specific action plan in place for such an event, Macera said, but adapted other notification methods to the moment.

Teachers and staff were encouraged to discuss walking safety with their students, Macera said. She went on local radio shows in the afternoon to alert parents that the letter was going home with their students and that they should take special care to read it.

“The response we got was that parents were really pleased that we were making students aware,” Macera said.

The School Department was making counseling available to the student and anyone else who felt they might need it, she said. Croce said the girl seemed to be in pretty good shape, both physically and mentally, after the ordeal.

Macera said there had been another incident at an elementary school this week, where a fourth-grade female student was talked to by a man in a car, but that student ran back into the building, Macera said. Croce said the police were aware of that incident but did not have enough information yet to know if it was connected to what happened on Elm Street Tuesday morning.

jhill@projo.com