Parents are being urged to be extra vigilant after a man tried to convince children to get into his car.
A police probe is underway after the terrified youngsters were invited into the stranger's car and ran away.
The children were approached on the street under the cover of night in Ponteland, Northumberland.
Cops said they were left shaken but not physically hurt after their ordeal, reports the Chronicle Live.
Officers have stepped up patrols in the upmarket village as they investigate the circumstances of the seemingly random incident.
A spokesperson for Northumbria Police said: "We received a report that at 6.40pm yesterday, two children were asked to get into a car being driven by a man on Barnaby Way, Ponteland.
"Both children ran off immediately and were unharmed, but were left shaken.
"Enquires are currently ongoing as to the circumstances surrounding the incident and extra officers are in the area today to provide reassurance."
It follows a separate incident where a child was reportedly abducted from a driveway in Ossett, West Yorkshire.
The youngster was said to be sitting inside the family's orange Nissan X-Trail 4x4 when it was stolen from the driveway.
Police launched a full-scale search operation involving a helicopter to track down the vehicle.
It was found dumped on the roadside an hour later with the child still inside and physically unharmed.
In other recent news, a boy escaped an attempted abduction by asking a shop assistant to pretend to be his mum.
Sammy Green was walking home from school when a woman began following him down the high street and offered to buy him "anything he wanted" from a local shop.
The quick-thinking youngster did not panic and instead whispered in the shop worker's ear asking her to pose as his mum.
Video show the moment the lad, from Pennsylvania, US, asked her to step in and take him to safety.
