Reports that a seven-year-old British-Australian boy caught up in the Barcelona attack has been found alive are not true, Catalan Police have said.

Spanish newspaper El Pais had reported that Julian Cadman had been found in hospital, but Los Mossos d'Esquadra – the province's police force – said no child had been located, nor were they missing.

In a statement released on Saturday afternoon, the Catalan police force said: "Neither [are] we were searching [for], nor we have found any lost child in the Barcelona attack. All the victims and injured have been located."

The police said that victims' families had "communicative priority" for new information.

Theresa May said on Friday that the British government was “urgently looking into reports of a child believed missing, who is a British dual national”.

Tony Cadman, Julian's grandfather, had appealed for help and information about his grandson's whereabouts after the attack.