Detectives today appealed for urgent help to discover if a man seen being bundled into a car was the victim of an abduction or a prank.

A passer-by alerted police when she saw the "victim" being forced into the car by two other men.

Today they were trying to discover if they have a crime to investigate.

The quandary follows an incident in High Street, Selsey, yesterday lunchtime when the woman witness reported seeing a man being bundled into a red car.

Despite searches of the area, no one was found although the incident is still being treated as a possible abduction and assault.

But if it was just a joke among friends, officers are keen to hear from any of the trio so that time is not wasted on a needless investigation.

Police 999 operators were told the man was bundled into a Ford Escort, which then drove off.

Police immediately launched a search of the area and checked several cars parked in the town matching the woman's description.

A force spokeswoman said: "The search went on for a couple of hours but we were unable to find anything to suggest a crime had been committed.

"Our enquiries also involved making checks with all the local hospitals to see if anyone had been admitted."

Police say the woman described the two men in the car as in their 20s and dressed in dark clothing.

The spokeswoman said: "At this stage we are none the wiser about what was taking place between the men but we still treating this as suspicious due to the nature of the 999 call.

"This could have been some form of prank that was taking place or something more sinister.

" High Street would have been fairly busy when this incident was seen so we are hopeful people will come forward with information."

People who can help have been asked to contact detectives at Bognor on 0845 60 70 999.