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Police are hunting a gang who stole a bronze statue of boxing legend Teddy Baldock from an east London park.
Four men dressed in black ripped the statue off its footing and carried it off in a cargo bike, leaving only the boots behind.
Police said that after the theft on Sunday from Langdon Park, Poplar, the suspects were last seen travelling northbound towards Bromley-by-Bow underground station.
Det Supt 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 inquiry.
"We'd appeal to anyone with information to get in touch with police."
Teddy, aka the ‘Pride of Poplar’ was Britain’s youngest ever world boxing champion when he won the bantamweight title at the age of 19 in 1927.
He retired young before falling into poverty and dying in 1971.
The statue was erected in the park in 2014.