A NINE-year old girl was threatened at knifepoint by a mugger who is just 12 years old.

Waltham Forest Police are appealing for information and witnesses following the attempted robbery on Sunday.

Just before 8pm the girl was walking three doors from a friend's house to her grandmother's near Millfield Avenue, at the junction with Guildsway, Walthamstow.

She was approached by the lad after he saw she was playing a Nintendo DS games console.

He told her to hand over her game but she said no.

He then pulled out a flip-out knife with a short green handle.

The girl ran away to the safety of her gran's house.

Her mother, 36, who does not want to be named, said: "She was absolutely terrified. She's very brave and feisty but afterwards she was shaking."

The advertising executive, who lives in Chingford, said it was the second time her children had come into contact with knife crime in as many months.

Her two-year-old son witnessed a youth who stabbed a pensioner and turned his knife on himself in Selbourne Walk Shopping Centre, Walthamstow, on March 7.

She added: "I'm absolutely disgusted. I was brought up in Walthamstow since I was four or five but to be quite honest I'm looking into moving away. When I my son came home from the stabbing he saw and said to me "Mummy, boy, dead, blood."

"To think that your children have to see this."

A police spokeswoman said: "The suspect is described as being of Mediterranean appearance, 4ft 10 inches tall with dark brown hair, wearing a black and blue hooded top and jogging bottoms, with a grey bandana hanging from his pocket.

"Anyone with information should contact investigating officer DS Martyn Hogg on 8345, or call Crimestoppers anonymously, on 0800 555 111."

The child is believed to be part of the Grey Gang, who hang out in the nearby Priory Court Estate.

Their trademark is the grey bandanas they wear hanging from their pockets or around their heads.

When asked if officers were investigating possible links to gang crime, a police spokeswoman said: "This is one line of enquiry we will pursue as part of investigations."