Police were today hunting an attacker who subjected a 20-year-old woman to a serious sexual assault in her own bedroom.

The woman was woken in the early hours at her home in Beedell Avenue, Westcliff, to find an intruder standing by her bed.

After sexually assaulting her, the man escaped by jumping out of a bedroom window.

Police have launched an appeal for information but say the incident was not being linked with a string of assaults in the town thought to have been the work of one man.

Officers from the investigation, named Operation Monarch, have looked at the incident but say there is nothing to link it with three other indecent assaults along the London Road.

The Operation Monarch team is hunting a man they believe committed all three assaults.

In the Beedell Avenue case, police are trying to trace a white man, in his mid to late 20s, slim, with tight curly brown short hair, wearing a beige jacket and dark trousers.

Sgt Paul Claydon, of Southend police, appealed for anyone who saw anything suspicious in the early hours of Monday to come forward.

He said: "Anybody who feels they might know the attacker or somebody who fits the description should come forward. Perhaps somebody disturbed someone in a back garden that night?

"We are anxious to trace this man before he strikes again."

If you have any information call Southend police station on 01702 431212

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.