Police and search dogs fanned out in a wooded area of Bellevue on Sunday, looking for a 2-year-old boy after the child's mother discovered him missing from a car parked near the 2600 block of 112th Avenue N.E.

The parking lot of nearby Bellevue Montessori School, in a part of Bellevue called Northtowne near I-405 and Highway 520, filled with emergency vehicles as the search continued into the afternoon and then into the chilly evening. Officers suspended the search around 6 p.m. and had no immediate plans to continue in the morning.

"King County felt like they had done a very thorough search of a pretty wide area for the boy and were confident that he wasn't there," said Officer Carla Iafrate, spokeswoman for the Bellevue Police Department.

The search began after Bellevue police responded at 9:50 a.m. to a call from a woman who said she had run out of gas and left the child, Sky Metalwala, buckled into a car seat while she and her 4-year-old walked about a mile to a Chevron gas station.

There, police said, the mother called a friend. The mother told police the friend picked her up as she was walking back to her 4-door silver Acura, but when they reached the car, the boy was no longer there. The mother told police the car was not locked.

There was no sign of forced entry, police said.

"We don't know much, other than that the child is still missing," Iafrate said. "I don't know if the child got out on his own. We don't have very much information."

Police did not find a gas can at the car, Iafrate said.

The child has brown eyes and dark buzz-cut hair and was wearing a dark-green hooded sweatshirt and blue and gray striped pants.

Detectives were working into the evening with the mother, who is from Redmond, Iafrate said. The father, who lives in Kirkland, had also been contacted.

About 50 emergency responders and King County Search & Rescue crews were still searching the area as darkness and temperatures fell Sunday evening.

"You have to be very meticulous," Iafrate said.

After police received the 911 call, they initiated reverse emergency calls to the surrounding neighborhood to alert residents to be on the lookout for a child. Iafrate said police have not issued an Amber Alert because they don't know yet if the child has been taken.

"At this point we're just treating it as a missing child," Iafrate said. "We don't know anything more yet."

Anyone with information about the child's whereabouts is asked to call 911.

Seattle Times reporters Lynn Thompson and Craig Welch contributed to this report. Sanjay Bhatt: 206-464-3103 50