Local authorities have reported to the Police the withdrawal of an original work by street artist Banksy in the London neighborhood of Peckham just an hour after its originality was confirmed and they have asked to “help them recover it.”

The vice-president of Southwark Council, Jasmine Ali, has defended that the artwork “should not have been removed” and assured that they would “like to recover it so that the entire community can enjoy Banksy’s brilliant work.”

The work in question, a traffic sign covered with three planes that look like military drones, It was announced on Banksy’s own social networks shortly after midnight (local time) on Friday.

Less than an hour after it was confirmed to be an authentic Banksy work, witnesses witnessed how the work was removed. A man present there at the time of the work’s removal described, “astonished” how a man “hit it with his hands.”

The Metropolitan Police has assured that it is aware of the incident and has explained that the stop sign has been replaced to avoid endangering road users.

In the photos and videos of the scene of the events it appears a man wearing a black and red jacketleaning on a Lime bicycle – held by another man – with one foot on the seat and the other on the handlebars.

Images immediately afterward show the man in black and red running in front of a white van with the stop sign after having removed it.

This is not the first time something like this has happened with one of the street artist’s works. On Valentine’s Day this year, a 3.8-ton mural called ‘Valentine’s Day Mascara’ appeared on the side of a house in Margate, Kent, and was taken down a few hours later after Banksy shared a series of photos of it online.

The mural depicted a 1950s housewife dressed in an apron. and yellow scrubbing gloves with a swollen eye and a missing tooth, throwing a man into a freezer.

In September, the mural was placed in the lobby of The Art Of Banksy exhibition, on Regent Street in central London, where it can currently be visited free of charge.

The exhibition includes works such as ‘Girl With Balloon’, ‘Flower Thrower’ and ‘Rude Copper’, as well as other more recent creations in which the artist acknowledges the ongoing war in Ukraine.