Officers revealed they are working on a “second theory” that the child, seen being bundled into a black van, had been involved in a row with a parent or guardian.
Detectives are “completely satisfied with the credibility” of the one person who reported witnessing the kidnap in the commuter town of Redhill at about 4.30pm on Thursday, detective superintendent Chris Edwards said at a press conference on Friday.
But he made an urgent appeal to anyone who was involved in an incident with their own child or a child that they are connected with to come forward so that police could scale back the investigation and offer reassurance to the public.
The white child, aged six or seven, was apparently seen being bundled into the back of the black van on Redstone Hill before the vehicle was driven off.
The suspected disappearance has sparked a major police investigation, although no child matching the description has been reported missing.
Edwards added it was “implicit” that a child would be in danger given the circumstances as it appears the child was taken “against their will”, although there was “no information to suggest a struggle”. There have been 130 reports by members of the public relating to the inquiry, he said, and they are “keeping a very open mind” about the investigation.
But he said: “I can confirm that we still don’t have, within the county, within the region or nationally, a report of a missing person fitting that description to date.”
Edwards also ruled out from the inquiry a black VW van about which police had previously appealed for information.
A mountain bike believed to belong to the child was left behind at the scene.
But the landlord of a nearby pub, who did not want to be named, said he moved the bike next to some bins after finding it dumped outside his premises earlier in the week.
He said: “On Wednesday it was outside at about 10am.
At about 1pm I moved it to the back of the old arcade where the bins are, assuming someone would pick it up — all the kids play around there.”
l Police are hunting a man who allegedly carried out sex attacks on two women in front of young children at a London bus stop.
The man sexually harassed and assaulted his victims as they waited at a bus stop in Bow in the afternoon, police said.
He is alleged to have approached his first victim, a 24-year-old woman, who was with her two young children and started making sexual remarks towards her.
The suspect then sexually assaulted another woman at the bus stop in Bow Church before grabbing his first victim’s hand.
She quickly got onto the next bus and tried to escape but he followed her, police said.
Police have released CCTV of a man they want to speak to in connection with the incident.
He is alleged to have once again started to make inappropriate comments towards her, telling her that he was going to follow her home.
The mother and her two children only managed to escape when she called her ex-partner to come and meet her from the bus near Green Street.
Police have released CCTV of a man they want to speak to in connection with the incident on June 15.
He is described as black, about 45-50 years-old, 6ft tall with dreadlocks.
He wore a Rastafarian hat and a black jacket.
Detective constable Alastair Middleton from the Met’s Roads and transport policing command, said: “This incident left the woman including her two young children feeling very distressed and we are pursuing a number of lines of inquiry to trace the man responsible.
“We are also aware that the man made inappropriate comments as well as sexually assaulting another member of the public during this time and we urge them to contact the police.”
l Three men have been convicted for their role in the theft of fire-fighting equipment worth more than £100,000 from fire stations across London and the south-east.
Jermaine Okakpu, 26, Jack Edwards, 20, and Luke Sixsmith-Hughes, 22, targeted up to 24 fire stations in a crime spree throughout August and September last year.
They broke into fire stations in Havering, Barking & Dagenham, Newham, Redbridge, Tower Hamlets, Hackney, Haringey, Enfield and Lewisham, as well as one station in Dartford, Kent and stole high-value equipment including thermal imaging cameras, fire service uniform and radios. Police believe the men were selling the stolen equipment overseas.
After an intelligence-led police operation, Edwards and Sixsmith-Hughes were arrested in a vehicle in Silvertown in Newham on September 15.
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