KEY POINTS:
The hunt for three-year-old Madeleine McCann centred on Monday on a marina near the resort where she disappeared, as the child's mother issued a tearful televised plea for her safe return.
Portuguese police have taken records of all boats booked into the Lagos marina between April 27 and Sunday and the harbour captain there admitted that they were searching for a body, as well as other evidence.
"We can't afford to [overlook] evidence such as clothes, shoes or even a body," he told Portuguese newspaper Diario de Noticias, as the search for Madeleine entered a fourth day.
Diario also suggested maritime police were looking for a "small bag" or "clothes" at sea and another local report suggested police were investigating a claim that a man was seen dragging a young girl along towards the marina.
Joao Riveiro, a member of the marina staff, said: "At one point I saw four [police officers] looking over there past the bridge and two inside." Bars and restaurants at the marina, busy with British tourists, displayed photographs of Madeleine to jog customers' memories yesterday.
The Portuguese Judicial Police (PJ) have disclosed little about the case and not explained why they believe Madeleine, who disappeared from a ground floor apartment in the Mark Warner Ocean Summer Club complex in the Algarve coastal village of Praia da Luz while her parents dined 50 metres away, is still alive and in the country.
Their initial refusal to confirm or deny comments made by their former inspector that the working description they are using suggests someone of British appearance added weight to that theory - raised in the daily newspaper Correio da Manha.
But a senior police official later dismissed the suggestion as "pure speculation."
The official told Reuters: "There are some people who say they saw a man giving out candy to children near the marina but there are many other accounts we are looking into as well."
Experts have put together an artist's impression of a 'suspect' but have not publicly revealed details for fear of aggravating the abductor.
The e-fit is understood to show only the rear view of a man - the back of his head and hair more than the features.
On Monday, Madeleine's mother Kate McCann, 38, a GP, issued a direct appeal to the abductor.
"Madeleine is a beautiful, bright, funny and caring little girl. She is so special. Please, please, do not hurt her," she said, clutching a picture of Madeleine and the child's favourite soft toy - a threadbare pink cat.
With her husband Gerry, a cardiac surgeon, at her side in a temporary holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, she called for anyone holding her daughter - or who had been holding her - to put her in a "place of safety" and "tell somebody where."
Speaking of their two-year-old twins, she continued: "Sean and Amelie need Madeleine and she needs us.
Mrs McCann then repeated the final sentence in Portuguese, saying: "Por favor, devolva a nossa menina [Please give our little girl back]."
When she had finished her tearful statement, apparently delivered on the family's initiative, she rested her head on her husband's.
As Mrs McCann spoke, Portuguese police and firefighters extended their search to a nine mile radius around Praia da Luz, where Madeleine went missing between 9.30 and 9.45pm on Thursday.
A small volunteer party of around 20 people were searching forests and rough ground around the outskirts of the village of Espiche.
The former police inspector Jose Barra da Costa, now a criminologist, said the abductor could be "a British acquaintance of the family who knew what steps to take to carry out his plans."
He said: "It was a premeditated act by someone who left nothing to chance and was perfectly aware of the level of risk involved and his chances of success.
Knowing Madeleine would have made it easier because he could have told her he was taking her to see her parents and stopped her putting up a struggle."
The McCanns, from Rothley, Leicestershire, also disclosed that on the night of her disappearance Madeleine was wearing white pyjama bottoms with a small floral design and a short-sleeved pink top with the word Eeyore written in capital letters.
The clothes were bought at Marks and Spencer last year.
- INDEPENDENT
