Friday's reported attempted abduction of a 10-year-old girl near an elementary school appears to have been a false alarm, police said Wednesday.

After receiving numerous tips, as well as a description from the girl and a counselor at the school, investigators located a man who fit the description, according to a news release from Santa Fe police Sgt. Louis Carlos. The man told police that he got out of a dark-colored sport-utility vehicle and began running in the area of Airport and South Meadows roads on Friday morning, just as the girl described.

However, the man said he was trying to flag down the school bus that his child had missed. He told police he never saw the girl or heard her screaming, Carlos said. He was intent on catching the bus because if his child had missed it again, the child would have lost bus privileges, he said.

The man was able to get the attention of the bus driver, and his child was able to get on board.

The girl — a fifth-grader at Sweeney Elementary School — told police that a dark-skinned man with a nose ring approached her after she crossed Airport Road and made her feel threatened, police have said. The girl began screaming and ran to the school. She said the man chased her for about 100 yards.

A counselor who was driving down South Meadows Road on her way to work saw the man walking away from the school toward Airport Road.

When police located the man, he was wearing the same clothes and fit the girl's description, Carlos said.

The man had no criminal record and didn't match the description of a man who tried to abduct an 11-year-old in the Eldorado area on Nov. 30, though city police are confident he was the man the girl saw running, Carlos said. The man will not be charged, the release says.

Santa Fe County Undersheriff Robert Garcia said his detectives haven't been able to make any headway in identifying a suspect in the Eldorado-area abduction attempt.

Contact Jason Auslander at 986-3076 or :jauslander@sfnewmexican.com.