SINGAPORE, Nov 16 — Residents of Toh Yi estate in Singapore are on the alert about a bespectacled man believed to be in his 30s who has reportedly been stalking children in the area since July to ask for their phone numbers.

He has also been accused of following a young girl and her helper to their HDB block and attempting to convince boys to buy things for him or visit his home, Singapore daily The Straits Times reported today.

The man was also spotted at a playground near the Pei Hwa Presbyterian Primary School, prompting the locals to sound an alert to teachers and residents in the area.

The Straits Times reported that a father of a nine-year-old girl claimed to have confronted a man who approached his daughter for her contact number while she was alone at a claw machine at Thomson Plaza on November 5, and later deleted it from his phone.

The father, a Singaporean citizen who was unnamed in the news report, filed a police report the same day, alleging to have seen messages in the other man’s phone that suggested the latter had previously approached other young girls.

The father was reported to have filmed the incident on his phone camera while confronting the man who gave his name as "John” and admitted that he has tried to make friends with a few young girls as well as a "sexual case waiting for investigations”.

"I really have no intentions but (I) just want to make friends,” the man called John reportedly said in the video, before adding that he will stop.

Singapore police confirmed that they are questioning a 30-year-old man in connection with the Thomson Plaza incident, but it is unclear if it is connected to the Toh Yi cases, The Straits Times reported.

The newspaper also reported Toh Yi residents as having received a WhatsApp message from a woman claiming to be "John’s” mother.

According to the news report, she apologised for causing distress to the Thomson Plaza girl’s parents and confessed that her son has some "conditions” that leads to "impulsive behaviour” and that he was undergoing professional help, before pleading "Give us time to manage his problems.”