Morocco photograph not Madeleine, say reporters (Roundup)

Sep 26, 2007, 16:16 GMT

Kate McCann at the family home in Rothley, Leicestershire, UK, this afternoon 26th September 2007. EPA/STEPHEN POND

London - Hopes that a blonde child photographed by a tourist in Morocco could have been missing British girl Madeleine McCann were dashed Wednesday by British and Spanish reporters who claimed to have traced and met the girl shown in the picture.

'She has got a resemblance to Madeleine but when you see her properly, it is obvious it isn't her,' Rashid Razaq, a reporter on London's Evening Standard newspaper, said Wednesday.

He had tracked down the girl, believed to be the five-year-old daughter of an olive farmer, in Zinat, on the north-western tip of Morocco.

Spanish television channel Telecinco was also reporting that the girl seen on the photograph was not Madeleine.

Razaq said that during his research in Zinat it had quickly emerged that the girl in the photograph was believed by villagers to be five-year-old Bushra Binhisa.

In Britain, the spokesman for the McCann's, Clarence Mitchell, said: 'Clearly, if these reports that the girl in the photograph isn't Madeleine are true, it is disappointing news.'

'Clearly, the search for Madeleine will continue and I would appeal for everyone to refocus their efforts to achieve her safe return.'

The blurred photograph of a blonde girl being carried in a sling on a woman's back in Morocco was flashed around the world Wednesday as international police experts began to examine the picture.

The photo, which was taken by a Spanish holidaymaker in Zinat at the end of August, surfaced nearly five months after Madeleine disappeared from her family's holiday apartment in southern Portugal, on May 3.

Madeleine's parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, who have been named suspects in the case by Portuguese police, believe that Madeleine was abducted and that she is still alive.

The photograph shows a woman in traditional dress, with a wide- rimmed hat with coloured bobbles, carrying a blonde girl on her back, and accompanied by two young women in Muslim dress. The group is led by a man, wearing a white cap, and pushing a wheelbarrow.

Clara Torres, who took the photograph on August 31, told Spanish radio that she was prompted to check on the photo after hearing of the recent Madeleine sightings in Morocco.

'As soon as I took the photo we were very struck by the little girl, who was very blonde. The we heard on the news that there were various people who had said they had seen Madeleine in Morocco. I ran to the computer, downloaded the photos ... and when we saw it we realized yes, it could be her. It sent shivers down my spine.'

News of the photograph came only days after reports that a British man believed he had spotted Madeleine near a hotel in Marrakesh, in the same location, and on the same day, as a Norwegian tourist reported seeing her.

The McCann's visited Morocco in the weeks after she disappeared, believing that their daughter could have been smuggled to Morocco within hours of her disappearance.

Reports said Wednesday that the McCann's, who this week hired a private security firm to search for Madeleine worldwide, had already authorized searches in Morocco 'in the last few days.'

Earlier this week, it was confirmed that the parents hired the services of Control Risk Group (CRG), an internationally-renowned security company, to help with the search of their daughter.