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Police study photo of girl in Morocco
2007-09-26
Police are analyzing a photo allegedly taken in Morocco of a girl who appears to resemble missing British 3-year-old Madeleine McCann, Interpol and a spokesman for the British Embassy said Wednesday. The photograph, published on many newspaper Web sites, shows a woman walking along a road and carrying a fair-haired child on her back. It was reportedly taken last month by Spanish tourists in northern Morocco. Interpol said its Madrid office had received "a number of photographs from members of the public of potential Madeleine sightings, including the picture taken in Morocco by a Spanish couple." The international police organization, based in Lyon, France, said the photographs had been forwarded to Portuguese police, who are leading an investigation into the girl's disappearance. "We understand that the photo has been sent to the relevant authorities and is being analyzed," said Adrian Chapman, a British Embassy spokesman in Rabat, the Moroccan capital. Britain's Sky TV, citing unidentified Moroccan sources, reported Wednesday that the girl was not Madeleine. A spokesman for the Moroccan Interior Ministry could not be immediately reached for comment and Portuguese police declined to comment on the grounds that an investigation was continuing. Madeleine disappeared from the Portuguese resort of Praia da Luz on May 3, days before her fourth birthday. Portuguese police have named the girl's parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, as official suspects in the disappearance. The couple said they had left the girl and her younger twin siblings asleep in their rented villa while they had dinner nearby. Despite an extensive search and a worldwide publicity effort led by her parents, no confirmed trace of the child has turned up. Alleged sightings of the girl have already been reported in Europe and Morocco. The area in which the photograph was taken is known for European influences, and fair-haired children with light-colored eyes are relatively common in the North African kingdom. The photo was taken through a car windshield at a distance of several dozen yards and the resemblance to Madeleine was only clear upon zooming up on the image. The photo, in which only vague outlines of the girl's face were visible, did not suggest any effort by the woman or anyone around her to keep the child's face hidden. The McCann family was tentatively holding out hope that the photo could be a lead for investigators. "On the face of it, it looks significant," said Clarence Mitchell, a spokesman for the couple, of the photo. He said the McCanns were being kept informed, and were awaiting the results of the police investigation. Mitchell said he and the family "took a decision a long time ago not to comment on these sightings, because they have all proved false." (This version CORRECTS Corrects that Sky report cited unidentified Moroccan sources, not officials. AP Video.)
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