KEY POINTS:
PRAIA DA LUZ - The hunt for Madeleine McCann at last appeared to gather momentum yesterday, as a mystery group of two men and a woman emerged as prime suspects.
Reports in both of Portugal's leading newspapers suggested that CCTV footage from the Galp petrol station, the first stop on the A22 motorway, which cuts across the Algarve towards Spain, could hold the key.
The sense of progress intensified when Madeleine's parents, Gerry and Kate McCann, were driven off with some urgency to a police station at Portimao, 10 miles from the south Algarve resort of Praia da Luz where the three-year-old disappeared eight days ago.
They may have been provided with new information about the inquiry from the local Policia Judiciaria.
Reports in Praia yesterday also suggested that roadblocks were in place at the town of Ayamonte, on the Spanish/Portuguese border.
As with all other reports on the investigation, the Portuguese police have refused to comment.
Accounts about the petrol station CCTV images vary - but the latest version suggests that a blonde woman who was in her 40s and not Portuguese was seen with two men in the petrol station before leaving in a car with British number plates.
The station is on the approach to the town of Lagos, a few miles from Praia.
Although there is no mention of Madeleine being seen with the three, one theory is said to be that a kidnap was carried out by one of the men with the complicity of a couple.
An earlier account of the petrol station had a woman with a girl fitting Madeleine's description.
The woman was said to be urging the little girl to say "thank you" to staff but the child appeared reluctant.
It has been confirmed by a source at the petrol station that police had taken CCTV footage from there.
There is no description of the men.
The footage is reportedly being shown to every new witness who comes forward with information and the 24 Horas newspaper suggested yesterday that a witness who spotted a foreign man - possibly British and accompanied by a British woman - photographing his daughter in Sagres, also near Praia, identified one of the men on the CCTV as the photographer.
Police are also reported to be investigating a report of a blonde woman seen near Madeleine's bedroom window on the night of her abduction.
One newspaper quoted an anonymous shopkeeper who said that they had driven past the woman and startled her.
"I was moving past in my car when I saw this woman next to the window," said the shopkeeper, who would not be named.
"She was startled. I'm from Praia and I'm used to foreigners. I know this woman looking through the window was a foreigner."
The man seen photographing the child was also non-Portuguese, according to the man whose child he was allegedly taking images of.
The incident occurred in Praca da Republica, in Sagres, where the father - a Portuguese who lives in Germany but who was back in the country on holiday - spotted him.
When challenged, the man jumped into a car and drove off with a woman.
He reportedly did not note the registration plate and the quality of photographs of the car which he took with his mobile phone are too poor to be useful to the police.
Four pieces of "very useful" fresh information about the inquiry have also come from the British Crimestoppers organisation, which set up a UK special number in the absence of publicised Portuguese police number and has received hundreds of calls.
The leads have been passed to Leicestershire Police - the McCanns' local force - who are working alongside Portuguese police on the case.
A Leicestershire police spokeswoman said: "We can confirm that we have had several calls from Crimestoppers. We cannot speculate whether or not that information is significant or useful. That's for the Portuguese police to decide."
As the Portuguese authorities appeared to make strides, it emerged that another officer from Britain's Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, affiliated to the Serious Organised Crime Agency, has arrived in Portugal to join the investigation.
The officer, a woman, will work closely with the McCann family and act as a liaison with the local police - a task which has so far been carried out by the Foreign Office.
The woman, an expert on child abuse and who is said to have served charities, will work with the McCanns.
- INDEPENDENT
