TWO girls aged seven and eight were left deeply traumatised after they were inappropriately touched by a man at the Bear Hotel in Marlborough.

At around 5pm on Thursday, the two girls were in the restaurant area of the High Street hotel when an Asian man of slim build approached them and then tried to hug them.

The alarmed girls, who are local to the area and were not staying in the hotel, then told their mother about the incident and she then confronted the man who then left the hotel.

Police are currently undergoing an investigation into this and are using the CCTV footage that the landlord of the hotel, Iain Watson, gave to them.

Mr Watson said: "We are deeply shocked and appalled by this incident. We have CCTV footage of this act and we have shared this to the police to help them as much as we can.

"The incident happened very very quickly and was very unfortunate. This has never happened before here. We offer our support to the family in this horrid situation."

The man was described as wearing a black hooded top, dark trousers, was carrying a pink plastic bag and is around 5ft 9.

Coun Nick Fogg said: "People across Marlborough would be quite right to feel deeply disturbed by this shocking incident. This is deeply shocking, especially as they were so young. It is very sad to hear that something like this has happened in Marlborough. You hear about this sort of thing in other towns but not here. I hope they find the perpetrators and I hope the family and the girls are okay."

DC Erin Martin said: "The girls did exactly the right thing in quickly telling a parent about what had happened. Hearing of this incident will be concerning to the community and is a timely reminder for all parents/guardians to talk to their children about stranger danger.

"We are following a number of lines of enquiry in order to identify this man and patrols have increased in the area. In order to help us prevent any further incidents we ask that anyone who recognises the man described above or who has any information which could assist our investigation comes forward."

If you have information of this, contact DC Erin Martin at Salisbury CID on 101 or call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.