A boy aged four is feared dead after he went missing in the Australian Outback.

August ‘Gus’ Lamont vanished from his grandparents’ home near Adelaide last Saturday afternoon.

Locals believe he may have fallen into an disused, unmarked mine. After a massive search effort, police have no significant clues regarding Gus’s whereabouts – apart from a footprint found almost half a mile away from the house.

South Australian Assistant Police Commissioner Ian Parrott yesterday admitted the boy’s chances of survival were slim – not least because of freezing overnight temperatures in the state.

He said: ‘We’re confident that we’ve done absolutely everything we can to locate Gus within the search area. Despite our best efforts, we have not been able to locate him and, unfortunately, we are now having to scale back this search for Gus.’

Australia’s Outback is a notoriously remote and inhospitable terrain but police still hold some slim hopes Gus will be found alive despite such conditions.

He was last seen at 5pm last Saturday by his grandmother playing outside at the property, which is near Yunta – 200 miles north-east of Adelaide. When she went to call him inside half an hour later, the boy had vanished.

Gus was wearing a grey hat, a blue Despicable Me-themed shirt, light grey trousers, and boots at the time of his disappearance.

August ‘Gus’ Lamont, 4, vanished from his grandparents’ home near Adelaide last Saturday afternoon.

Despite a massive search operation, the emergency services have been unable to locate Gus, with locals voicing fears that the youngster may have falled down one of the abandoned wells and mines that pockmark the area

Police believe he simply wandered off and was not taken.

Mr Parrott added: ‘While those involved in the search have been hoping for a miracle, over the past 48 hours the search has shifted to a recovery operation.

‘The investigation will now be managed by the Missing Persons Investigation Section. This is where all long term cases such as this are managed and investigated and is standard practice.

‘We will now continue to pursue ongoing lines of inquiry, and we will not rest until we can try to find the answer to why Gus has gone missing and hopefully for the family, return him to them.’

Police Superintendent Mark Syrus previously said it was ‘unusual’ for Gus to wander as he ‘normally stays within the confines of the area’.

‘But who knows what goes through a four-year-old’s mind?’ he added. ‘We understand he’s a pretty quiet sort of lad, but he is a country lad and he’s pretty adventurous as well. Moving out of the area is a little bit unusual.’

One local said Gus may have fallen into a mine.

‘I would be more worried about the unmarked wells and mines he may have fallen into,’ he said. ‘That’s the talk.’

The state is dotted with mines and wells from more than a century ago. They were used as water sources for livestock and those hunting gold, with many being invisible to the naked eye.

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A picture of a footprint that police believe may have been left by Gus

Family friend Bill Harbison issued a statement on the family’s behalf earlier in the week.

It read: ‘This has come as a shock to our family and friends, and we are struggling to comprehend what has happened. Gus’s absence is felt in all of us and we miss him more than words can express.

‘Our hearts are aching, and we are holding on to hope that he will be found and returned to us safely.

‘At this time, we kindly ask for privacy as we focus all our energy on supporting the search and working closely with the police.’