By: CECÍLIA PIRES
BELGIAN POLICE are investigating a possible sighting of Madeleine McCann in Tongeren, a small city near Maastricht in Belgium.
The alert was launched by a children’s therapist who is said to have seen a couple acting nervously in the company of a girl who looked very much like Madeleine.
The sighting happened while the witness was sitting at a restaurant’s esplanade in Tongeren.
A photofit of the man was immediately released by the local police and is now being spread throughout the media all over Europe.
According to the Tongeren police, the witness said the man could be Dutch due to his strong accent, although the woman appeared to be British. They were travelling in a Volvo car, according to other local witnesses.
A police spokesman said: “The woman told us the little girl bore a striking resemblance to Madeleine McCann and was behaving nervously.”
The same source added that the sighting is being treated “very seriously” and that forensic investigators are already analysing “a soft drink bottle the girl had been drinking from”.
According to Belgian police, the witness “got up to call us as soon as she saw the girl, but when she returned to her table all three of them got into a car and left”. The same spokesman underlined that “the woman is a credible witness and we are taking the sighting very seriously”.
Yesterday (August 2), The Resident was able to confirm that Gerry and Kate McCann had still not been informed of this sighting and the Portuguese police had only been unofficially informed.
The Resident was told that the Portuguese police investigating the Madeleine McCann case had worked through the night, but no details were revealed as all investigation procedures are protected under the secrecy of justice law.
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