Footage of statue theft released

Officers are appealing for information after a statue of British boxing legend Teddy Baldock was stolen from a park in east London.

Police were called at 20.07hrs on Sunday, 1 February to reports that the bronze monument had been taken from Langdon Park in Poplar.

Officers have obtained CCTV which shows four suspects at the scene, all dressed in black with their faces covered.

The suspects wiggled the statue free from its stone plinth before placing it in a three-wheel cargo bike and covering it with a high-vis jacket.

No tools were seen to be used.

The suspects were last seen traveling northbound towards Bromley-by-Bow underground station.

Detective Superintendent Oliver Richter, responsible for neighbourhood policing in Tower Hamlets, said:

“We understand this is a very distressing time for members of our community to have a monument of a local hero treated this way.

“I want to assure the public that our officers are working at pace to identify those responsible and will continue to follow every available line of enquiry.

"We'd appeal to anyone with information to get in touch with police."

The statue of local Teddy Baldock – Britain’s youngest boxing world champion – was erected in Langdon Park in 2014 following a fundraising campaign led by his grandson.

First for all the latest news from across the UK every hour on Hits Radio on DAB, at hitsradio.co.uk and on the Rayo app.