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Police question beret-wearing man after Madeleine McCann 'spotted' in central Sydney
Last updated at 01:07am on 18.03.08Police in Australia have questioned a man after a he was spotted with a girl thought to be missing Madeleine McCann.
Officers in Sydney challenged the middle-aged man after a member of the public alerted them to a possible sighting of the four-year-old.
Staff working at a station stop in central Sydney followed the man for several minutes until police arrived on the scene.
He was wearing a black beret and carrying a little, blonde girl who bore a close resemblance to missing Maddie.
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'Spotted': Madeleine McCann has been missing since disappearing on holiday with her parents in May last year
After a short chase, three police officers caught up with the man at a German bakery.
But police said the sighting turned out to be a false alarm.
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"There was a possible sighting," a police spokeswoman said.
"It's been checked. The police obviously took it seriously enough to check."
A worldwide, nine-month search for the missing four-year-old was launched last year after she went missing in May while on a family holiday in Praia da Luz, Portugal.
The hunt has seen a number of false alarms, most notably the alleged sighting by a tourist of Madeleine in Morocco.
The report was supported by a blurred photograph, but eventually turned out to be a local girl on her mother's back.
Hunt for Maddie: The tourist picture which appeared to show Madeleine McCann. It was eventually revealed this was not the British toddler, but Morrocan girl Bouchra Benaissa with her mother
Reader views (2)
Yeah right - 'Around the world in 80 sightings' - yawn!
- Thomas, Glasgow, UK
Black beret and at a German bakery? So, the abductor is not a creepy North-African any more but it turned out that it is - Adolf Hitler! Thanks Clarence and Garry - you guys will not only catch evil dictators but will also find a cure for cancer, I bet.
- Thomas, Glasgow, UK
