A man tried to lure three children into a car in the Bridgeport neighborhood Sunday, Chicago police said.

       The kids were playing on the sidewalk just after 8 a.m. in the 3100 block of South Halsted Street when a man in the passenger seat of a gray sedan asked if he could use their cellphone and then attempted to get the children inside the car, according to a police community alert released Monday.

       A witness intervened and the man fled in the vehicle, police said.

       The man was described as around 20 to 30 years old, shirtless with multiple tattoos on both arms and hair styled in a ponytail; the driver of the vehicle was a woman who was believed to be about 40 to 50 years old, police said.