Montreal police are looking for a rusty red minivan after they received a 911 call from a man who reported seeing a girl in distress inside.

Police say they've been flooded with anonymous tips since the Monday morning call, but aren't sure whether the reported sighting is related to the Cédrika Provencher investigation or any other child abduction case.

Search efforts for the aging Aerostar minivan started Monday morning in St. Leonard, northeast of Montreal, after local resident Franco Valerio called police to report what he saw in the parking lot of a nearby supermarket.

Valerio was carrying a couple of baskets of peaches to his car when he says he spotted a man getting into the minivan. "Then I saw a little girl inside with a bandanna wrapped like this," around her head and mouth, he told CBC News on Tuesday.

The girl had tears in her eyes, Valerio said.

The St. Leonard resident added he believed the girl was Cédrika, the nine-year-old girl who disappeared in Trois-Rivières more than a month ago.

But police aren't yet ready to make the link with the much-publicized abduction case in central Quebec, or any other kidnapping investigation, said Const. Olivier Lapointe.

"The van has not been found, and we're not sure it's an abduction because we haven't had reports of a missing girl in recent days," he said on Tuesday.

Valerio spent several hours with police investigators Monday recounting what he saw. Police say they're looking for a short man in his 50s with long, greyish hair and a long beard.

The van is an old burgundy Ford Aerostar van with a rusted underbelly and mud-sprayed sides, and no hubcaps.

Lapointe said police hope the driver will come forward to clear up the situation. Investigators are following up on more than 100 tips phoned in since Monday.