Madeleine McCann: Has Missing Girl Been Found in India?
A report has emerged from India that a young girl matching the description of missing British girl Madeleine McCann has been found.
A girl bearing a remarkable likeness to Madeleine, who disappeared four years ago, has been spotted, according to the Chandigarh Tribune.
Madeleine McCann was just three-years-old when she was kidnapped from her family’s holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal, on May 3, 2007. The kidnapping sparked a worldwide search for the girl, and intense media speculation about the exact details of the night she went missing.
Madeleine would now be eight-years-old.
Clarence Mitchell, spokesman for Madeleine’s parents Gerry and Kate McCann, has reported : “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.”
The alleged sighting was made in India’s northern city of Leh, which lies alongside the Himalayas. The sighting was reported to have come from a British tourist, who alongside other witnesses claimed that the girl spotted had an uncanny resemblance to the much-publicized pictures of Madeleine.
According to the Chandigarh Tribune events became heated and an American tourist was said to have tried to take the girl from the couple she was with. The girl was being accompanied by a Belgian man and a French woman.
Local police were called to the scene and allegedly made copies of the couple’s passports. The couple, however, insisted that the girl was their daughter.
A spokesman for Leh police told local media: “It all depends upon the evidence like DNA for which help from Madeleine's parents and the British police was required.”
Madeleine’s parents continue to search for their daughter and are convinced she may still be alive somewhere. They recently penned a book describing the events surrounding her disappearance, hoping that the proceeds can help extend the search for Madeleine.
Portuguese police officially closed the inquiry into the girl’s disappearance in three years ago in 2008, and the McCann’s have since then relied solely on private detectives to continue the search for their daughter.