Briton 'suspect' in Madeleine probe

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Robert Murat was questioned late on Monday night while forensic experts searched his house just yards from where the four-year-old was snatched 12 days ago.

He was one of three people questioned by detectives in the town of Portimao. All three were released overnight.

Although he has not been charged and is not believed to be in custody, it is thought he is the first person to be formally classed as a suspect.

Among items taken from the house which was searched on Monday night were videotapes and a computer, witnesses said.

Under Portuguese law, people who are questioned are not under arrest but simply treated as witnesses.

Arrests can only be made when police consider someone a suspect or possible suspect and then they require a court order before they can be cast as such.

Chief Inspector Olegario Sousa, spokesman for the Madeleine McCann investigation, said on Tuesday that a British man in his thirties taken from the house which was searched has now been classed as an "arguido".

Madeleine was snatched from her bed in the resort town of Praia da Luz on May 3 while her parents were dining nearby. There has been no news of her whereabouts since.

On Tuesday her parents Gerry and Kate emerged from the apartment where they are staying with their twin children Sean and Amelie and walked the short distance to a nearby creche to drop them off.