Police DNA-test bottle in hunt for Madeleine

Belgian police are carrying out DNA tests today on a drinks bottle used by a girl resembling missing Madeleine McCann, as the 100-day marker of the youngster’s disappearance approaches.

A possible sighting of the missing four-year-old in the Flemish town of Tongeren, near the Dutch border, is being investigated by the Belgian authorities.

A customer at a restaurant in the town told police she was “100% sure” she had seen the youngster.

In Portugal, police have refused to comment on reports that traces of blood, believed to be Madeleine’s, have been found on a wall in the holiday apartment in Praia de Luz where she went missing.

The blood was discovered early last week by British sniffer dogs specially trained to find remains of bodies, the Portuguese paper Jornal de Noticias reported.

Detectives now believe it is most likely Madeleine is dead, having been killed accidentally, the newspaper claimed.

There has been no official confirmation of this, and Madeleine’s parents Gerry and Kate McCann have repeatedly said they are optimistic they will be reunited with their daughter.

Mr and Mrs McCann, who are still in Portugal, are planning a media event on Saturday to mark the 100-day anniversary of Madeleine’s disappearance to keep it in the public eye. But they also retain hopes there will be a positive development before that point.

Mrs McCann has been carrying out a series of interviews this week.

She told the website www.marieclaire.co.uk of her frustration that time was passing without a major breakthrough in the police investigation.

She said: “There’s no doubt we have some very low times. The hope is still there. We’re still trying very much to be positive. We have to keep going for us and for the twins. And also for Madeleine.”

She spoke of feeling like the “unluckiest person on the planet”, but added her relationship with her husband had helped her through the past months.

She said: “We are very lucky that we have a very strong relationship. We always have had. We always talk a lot and it’s even more important now that we do that.”

It was reported that Portuguese police have been keeping a second suspect under surveillance for weeks.

The unnamed man, who is in his 30s and a Portuguese speaker, is not believed to be Madeleine’s kidnapper but may have been an accomplice, according to the Daily Mirror.

A second search at the home of the only formal suspect in the case has apparently turned up no new evidence.

While Portuguese police remain tight-lipped about the result of the re-examination of the villa the chief suspect shares with his mother, citing Portugal’s strict secrecy of justice laws, a source close to the investigation told the Diario de Noticias newspaper that nothing was found.

Up to 12 Portuguese and British police officers have spent two days scouring the inside and outside of the 33-year-old man's villa, Casa Lilian, which is just yards from where Madeleine, from Leicestershire in England, went missing.

A friend of the suspect's, said: “They haven’t officially said anything – they didn't say anything to us – but we were there, and I think we would have seen and known if they had found anything.

“They (police) won’t be going back to the house again – if they do, they’re going to look pretty stupid,” he added.

Portuguese police first searched the villa on May 14, when the man was also taken in for questioning.

The following day he was formally named an “arguido”, or suspect, in the investigation.

He has always strenuously maintained his innocence, and hopes the results of the weekend’s search will prove he had no involvement in Madeleine’s abduction.

There have also been reports a witness has come forward with evidence to contradict his alibi that he was at home with his mother on the night Madeleine went missing.

Martin Smith, an Irish expatriate living in Praia da Luz, said he saw the man drinking in a local bar that night, according to the reports.

But the suspect's friend said he had never heard of Mr Smith and added that the suspect had not drunk alcohol for “years and years”.