Police have been speaking to schoolchildren in Hadleigh after a teenage girl reported she had been raped in the town on Saturday night.

Officers from Suffolk’s major investigation team have ruled out a link between the attack and another sex assault on a female which occurred in Pykenham Way, Hadleigh, at around 8.35pm on New Year’s Eve.

Patrols have been stepped up to reassure residents in the area of the latest incident and house-to-house enquiries have been carried out.

Police received a report that a teenage girl had been raped at 2am on Sunday. The incident was said to have occurred as she was walking in Tayler Road near the junction with Yeoman Crescent at around 9.30pm.

Detectives have said they want to speak to a man who is white, in his early 20s, of medium build, clean shaven, around 5ft 7in tall, and was wearing dark blue jeans and a black adidas hoodie with hood up. The hood is described as having two black cords hanging down, and the top had three white stripes down both arms and a white adidas motif on the right chest.

Donna Johnston, a spokeswoman for Suffolk Constabulary said: “We are carrying out reassurance patrols, doing house-to-house and talking to schools in the area.

“We are not linking it to the sexual assault that happened on New Year’s Eve, and the investigation is still ongoing. If anyone has any information they should contact us on 101.”