Police investigating a report of a suspicious driver in Crawley Down say they are are not linking it with any other investigation.
Sussex Police received a report that a girl felt she was being followed by a man in a small white van as she made her way home in Station Road, Crawley Down, on Tuesday (June 18).
The 10-year-old girl said the driver drove close to her slowly. He may have shouted “Stop” but the girl ran home.
Rumours circulating on social media suggest that the incident is linked to one in Carshalton in Greater London on May 12 when a man tried to grab a 12-year-old girl.
Metropolitan Police officers issued an efit of a bald man they would like to speak to over that incident but there is no evidence that this case, or any other, is linked to the incident in Crawley Down.
A Sussex Police spokesman said: “The inaccurate suggestion of a link between the Crawley Down incident and others in Surrey and London has been circulated on social media and has caused unnecessary concern among families and children.
“We are currently treating the Crawley Down incident as an isolated one. We would ask anyone with any information about what happened to call us on 101. We would also ask the driver to come forward to explain his actions.”