Madeleine detectives 'hunting Portuguese drifter who is the spitting image of new kidnap suspect'

Joaquim Agostinho was seen in Altura last week after two British tourists complained they had been followed by a prowler who looked "identical" to a sketch of the alleged kidnapper.

They said the prowler had also targeted children.

The sketch, drawn by an FBI-trained forensic artist, was commissioned by Kate and Gerry McCann.

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It is based on a description given by Gail Cooper, who saw a man lurking near children in Praia da

Luz, 90 miles from Altura, days before Madeleine vanished last May.

When shown a picture of Mr Agostinho, Mrs Cooper, 50, said: "He's the spitting image of the man I saw three times at the resort where Madeleine vanished."

A source close to Metodo 3, the McCanns private detectives, said: "We are going to be talking to this man as a priority, to establish if he is the man in question, who Mrs Cooper saw."

Mr Agostinho has denied any involvement in Madeleine's disappearance.

The former cocklepicker, 42, who ekes out a living delivering newspapers, said: "I did not kill Madeleine and I've never been to Praia da Luz."

He told the News Of The World: "I cannot even drive. I accept that the drawing looks like me. All my friends have been laughing about it."

Mr Agostinho, from Altura, said police had not contacted him about his resemblance to the sketch.

Officers were called to the resort, near Portugal's open border with Spain, after British tourists complained a man was following them and apparently targeting children.

Two women told their tour operator the man who followed them was "identical" to the McCann sketch.

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A third British woman said she saw the same man talking to two children on the beach in the quiet family resort and said one boy seemed upset. Witness Pauline Douglas-73, of Manchester, said she did not believe the man who followed her was Mr Agostinho.

Last week, Joaquim Jose Marques was also said to resemble the sketch.

The pig farmer was sentenced to five years' jail in 1996 after being found guilty of raping two British tourists in Praia da Luz. But Portuguese police have ruled him out of the inquiry.