McCanns beg to see CCTV footage of 'sighting' of Madeleine in France

Kate and Gerry McCann tonight urged French police to show them CCTV footage of a suspected sighting of daughter Madeleine in the South of France.

Although it appears French police have ruled out the possibility it is the four-year-old her parents want to see the surveillance video from a French diner where a Dutch tourist reported seeing the missing British girl.

They refuse give up hope it is her until they have seen the footage and believe it would "put their minds at rest".

McCann family spokesman Clarence Mitchell said the family wanted to hear directly from French investigators before discounting the sighting.

Mr Mitchell said: "We want to see the video of this girl. We want to hear from the French police about what they have investigated and what they have decided."

French police have not officially discounted that it is Madeleine so we're still waiting to hear whether they believe this to be the case.

"Even if the police believe it is not Madeleine, Kate and Gerry would still like to see the video and would hope to be able to do this as a priority.

"The reports that this may not be Madeleine are obviously a great disappointment.

"If the French police can categorically assure us it is not her then we will have to take their word for it, but despite this they should let Kate and Gerry see the footage. This is their daughter we are talking about."

The CCTV footage is believed to show student Melissa Fiering, 18, in shock at seeing the little girl with a "tall, swarthy" man at a service station in Montpellier on Friday.

She said she called out to the girl, who bore a "striking resemblance" to the missing youngster - and had a distinctive fleck in her right eye.

She claimed the child looked startled at the sound of her name and the man she was with quickly bundled her out of the restaurant on the A9 motorway into a car.

But French police have tracked down the man after the number plate of his car appeared on the video footage.

A police spokesman said: "We located the driver after his number plate appeared on video footage taken at the service station provided a plausible explanation of what he was doing there with a young child.

"As far as we are concerned, this matter is now cleared up."

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Despite reports that the girl is definitely not Madeleine French detectives are still examining the footage at the Forensics laboratory in Rosny-sur-Bois, just north of Paris - where the evidence surrounding the car crash which killed Princess Diana was also examined.

There have been several suspected sightings in Europe and North Africa of Madeleine, who vanished from her bed in a Portuguese holiday resort days before her fourth birthday last May.

But this is only the second time someone claimed to have identified a girl with the unusual marking in her eye.

Meanwhile detectives from the McCann's private investigators Metado 3 were back in Praia da Luz last night. They were seen studying aerial photos of the area.