A nine-year-old orphan who speaks no English and claims to have been kept indoors watching television for several years has been rescued after being “abandoned” at a bus stop.

Police and social services are trying to piece together the past life of Gurrinder Singh, who cannot name any relatives or friends but told police that he was deserted at the bus stop in a busy London suburb by a “white uncle”.

He was found in a neighbourhood clinic apparently healthy but exhausted, leading Scotland Yard to believe that he may have travelled from any part of the country or even beyond.

“It’s a real conundrum,” Chief Inspector Keith Lunson said yesterday. “It’s a peculiar case. We are still struggling to get any information.”

Gurrinder was found in the clinic in Hartington Road, deep in the heart of the predominantly Asian Southall area of West London at 4.30pm on Tuesday. “He was at the clinic for about three hours,” Mr Lunson said. “Staff only really noticed him when they started to close.”

Gurrinder speaks no English words, only Punjabi. He appeared to be well dressed and there was nothing to suggest he had been illtreated. He was found wearing a blue coat, yellow jumper with “3 game” on the front, blue jeans, white long-sleeved shirt with pink vertical stripes, white socks and red-and-beige trainers. He has a distinctive mole on his left cheek. He had no identifying documents.

When his black designer beanie hat was removed, he was seen to have his hair wound round the crown of his head. He also wore a wrist bangle. Both are Sikh customs.

The police drove him around Southall, using an interpreter to see if he could recall any landmarks that would give clues to his journey.

At first, Gurrinder, who is 5ft tall, suggested he had travelled on a double-decker bus but then he saw a single-deck “bendy” bus and said that was his.

The only such route through Southall is the 207 which travels between Hayes, a suburb in West London, and Shepherds Bush, a major interchange near the centre of the capital.

Gurrinder said he had travelled on the bus with his “uncle”, a slim white man in his thirties.

“He told officers his parents had died before he came to this country and he says he has been here two to three years but had not engaged in school or other activities that you would expect for a nine-year-old. He seems to have stayed indoors watching television,” Mr Lunson said.

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