TEENAGER boys were threatened by a man with a knife while they cycled to school.

The three youngsters, all 13, were on their way to the Gilberd School in Colchester when the man produced a blue handled Stanley knife.

They had first seen the man the day before when cycling through Myland Hall Chase, a small alley off of Ipswich Road, Colchester, at 8.20am last Thursday.

He had been with a woman and young child the boys regularly pass at the same spot and had told them they were taking up too much of the pathway.

When one of the boys replied asking how much room he needed, he chased the group up the pathway.

The next day, the boys were on their way to school in the alleyway when the man was there again, grabbed hold of one of the bikes, produced the blade and said “You are not so hard now, are you?”

Darren Bethell, whose son was one of the boys involved, wanted other parents and pedestrians to be aware of what had happened.

He said: “They had an altercation with the man on the Thursday.

“He chased them off and the next day he came and found them again and had a Stanley knife in one of the 13-year-old’s faces.

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“They went to school and the school contacted the police.

“As far as we know nothing has happened.

“They see the little girl and her mum every day because they get to the alleyway at the same time.

“And the boys are quite considerate. They will move out the way on their bikes.

“But on the Thursday this man was there and one of them said something back to him.”

Mr Bethell said the boys had been frightened by the experience with one of them scared to answer his front door at the weekend fearing the knifeman has tracked him down.

He said he had been forced to change his routine in order to give the boys a lift to school on Monday and wanted people to be aware of the possible danger.

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A spokesman for Essex Police said: “They were unhurt but left shaken.

“Inquiries are ongoing.”

Anyone with information is asked to contact the Colchester local policing team on 101 quoting reference 42/168377/18.