An Ealing shopkeeper has handed CCTV footage to the police of what he believes is the prime suspect in the Alice Gross murder buying cider.

Freddy Alavi, from the Corner Shop in Ealing, West London, said he had refused to serve alcohol to a teenager and afterwards a man, who he thinks was Zalkalns, entered the shop and bought it for him.

This was on August 28, shortly after Hanwell schoolgirl Alice Gross was last seen alive. Police now urgently want to speak to the boy who may have spoken to Zalkalns.

Mr Alavi, a dad in his 50s, said: "The boy came in first. He asked to buy cider but I refused him when he had no ID. Then the other man came in, he bought the cider. He seemed out of it. He was unshaven, scruffy and smelly.

“The whole thing was suspicious. The boy was about 14 or 15, but he had the beginnings of a beard. He was of Asian appearance and also looked like he had been sleeping outside.”

Mr Alavi has handed police CCTV footage about half a mile from where Zalkalns was living.

Forensic tents at the site of where the body of missing Alice Gross was found on Tuesday

Alice, 14, was last seen on August 28 near her home in nearby Hanwell. Zalkalns, who murdered his wife in Latvia and served seven years, was filmed cycling along the Grand Union Canal 15 minutes after Alice had walked along it.

Alice’s body was found in a river on Tuesday. A body believed to be Zalkalns was found hanged in woods on Saturday. A postmortem is due to take place.

Zalkalns’ former landlord Radoslav Andric, 64, said he believed he killed himself because he could not face being put behind bars again.

We don’t know if he killed the little girl, but if so, he should have been captured alive to face justice,” he said.

A Scotland Yard spokesman said: “We cannot comment on an ongoing inquiry.”