McCann family plays down sighting of Madeleine
Local police are said to be investigating after a British woman spotted a girl who appeared to resemble Madeleine in a market in the city of Leh in northern India on Friday night.
A French woman and a Belgian man with the girl insisted they were her biological parents but police took their passports to check, the Chandigarh Tribune newspaper reported. It was reported police have taken swabs from the girl for a DNA test
Clarence Mitchell, spokesman for Madeleine’s parents Gerry and Kate McCann, said: “Our private investigators are aware of the reports from India over the weekend about a possible sighting of Madeleine.
“We are liaising with the Indian authorities over the incident and await the results of the DNA test.”
A spokesman for Leh police told the Chandigarh Tribune in India: “It all depends upon the evidence like DNA for which help from Madeleine’s parents and the British police was required.”
It is understood the private detectives hired by Madeleine’s parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, to look for their daughter are not currently planning to travel to India but will liaise with local police.
McCann family spokesman Clarence Mitchell said: “The private investigators currently searching for Madeleine have been aware of this report from India for several days, and have been working to establish its veracity.
“So far unfortunately there is nothing to suggest that this sighting is any more credible than any of the many others we have had over the last four-plus years.”
Madeleine was nearly four when she went missing from her family’s holiday flat in Praia da Luz in the Algarve on May 3 2007 as her parents dined with friends nearby.
Portuguese detectives, helped by officers from Leicestershire Police, carried out a massive investigation into her disappearance.
But the official inquiry was formally shelved in July 2008. Since then no police force has been actively looking for the missing child.
