The officers, in four cars, raced towards the home on Route de Maufant after receiving a call just before 2pm on Tuesday.

They arrived at 2.05pm and the boy was found five minutes later.

A police spokeswoman said the boy had been reluctant to respond to his father’s call for him as he ‘did not want to ruin the game of hide and seek’.

‘Reports like this are taken very seriously, but thankfully this had a positive ending,’ she said.