Police are appealing for help after a young boy was reportedly bundled into a van and abducted during rush hour.

A witness said they saw the boy, believed to be aged six or seven, being taken into the side of a black VW transporter in Redhill, Surrey at 4.43pm on Thursday.

Police said the van had an 02 number plate and was a model with a sliding door and no rear windows.

The van, which bore no logo, is described as having three alloy wheels, with one front nearside missing. The alloys were a BBS make. It also had chrome sidesteps.

A mountain bike thought to belong to the child was left at the scene.

The boy is described as white, around 4ft tall and was wearing a red T-shirt and navy jeans.

Superintendent Bex Smith said: "This is an incident we are taking extremely seriously and are asking for anyone with any information regarding the child, the van or what happened to come forward.

"If you were in the area, perhaps commuting to or from Redhill train station at the time please get in touch with us if you saw anything suspicious.

"At this stage we are not ruling out a number of options, including whether the child and the person in the van know each other."

A National Police Air Service helicopter is assisting in the search.

Anyone with any information should contact Surrey Police by calling 999 in an emergency or 101, or report it online at www.surrey.police.uk quoting Operation Bigfoot.

People can also contact the independent charity Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.