Despite reviewing hours of
CCTV footage, carrying out house-to-house inquiries and checking missing
children databases, police found no evidence to back witness claim.
The man who claimed to have
seen a young boy being abducted has been arrested on suspicion of perverting
the course of justice.
He told police he had seen
the child being taken into a black VW Transporter van in Redhill, Surrey, on
Thursday afternoon, and a major investigation was launched.
He has since been
"re-interviewed at length" about his account, and subsequently
arrested on suspicion of perverting the course of justice.
A Surrey Police spokesman
said: "Officers had no reason to disbelieve the account of the witness and
had to act quickly in order to prevent what was suspected to be a risk to the
life of a child.
"In the days since,
officers have carried out an extensive and thorough investigation into this
report which has not brought about any evidence to corroborate it."
The man has since been
released on bail.
Senior investigating
officer Detective Superintendent Pete Fulton said: "The risk to life and
safeguarding children are our first priorities when presented with a report
like this which is why we took the course of action we did.
"Time was of the
essence, which is why we asked for help from the public and media to find out
what happened as soon as we could.
"Reports of this
nature are extremely rare and we are the sure the public understand that when
information such as this is received we treat it extremely seriously and must
do all we can to find out investigate what's happened.
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