Police have played down fears of child abduction after a social media frenzy started when a woman claimed she had prevented an abduction by chasing a man through the streets.

Despite initially saying it had no record of the incident, Merton Police said today they had been called to reports by a family they had left a child on a bus by mistake.

Mystery of woman who claimed she saved child from abduction in Mitcham - but police have no record of it happening

They will not be taking any further action on the matter.

A member of the public, Natalie Murphy, posted on her Facebook page that she saw a man grab a five-year-old girl from a bus in Mitcham Eastfields while it paused at traffic lights.

In the post, which has been shared almost 650 times on Facebook, Ms Murphy said she ran after the man for over 10 minutes in knee-high four-inch boots, before jumping on his back and knocking him to the floor.

But police have dampened fears of a child abductor on the loose.

Inspector Jon Wilson said: “A child had been left on a bus and a family member came back to get that child.

“Police did attend and speak to the family.

“We won’t be taking any further action.”

He said police were called to reports of a child being left on a bus, but when they arrived in Mitcham, the child was not there. Although Ms Murphy said she was given a crime number after the chase, which she said took place on Monday, April 11, she could not provide it when asked by the Wimbledon Guardian.

She spoke to the Wimbledon Guardian briefly on Tuesday but has not returned calls since.

The post has been shared widely across social media, leading several people to directly ask the police via Twitter if the attempted abduction really happened.