Madeleine McCann: British police release computer generated images of suspects

British police on Monday released computer-generated images of several men who may have been involved in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann in Portugal six years ago.

The images were shown on the latest episode of BBC One’s Crimewatch program in yet another appeal for information on the case that continues to make international headlines.

One of the men was seen carrying a child aged three or four, possibly wearing pajamas, on the night McCann was snatched from her parents’ holiday apartment in Praia da Luz on May 3, 2007.

"The sighting was during the evening of the 3rd of May around 10:00 p.m., and it was of a man walking down the street with a child in his arms,'' Detective Chief Inspector Andy Redwood, the senior investigating officer in the case, told Crimewatch.

While Redwood said police believe the case has “all the hallmarks of a pre-planned abduction,” they have not ruled out the possibility that McCann was taken after she interrupted a burglary. There had been a sharp increase in burglaries in the area in the months lead up to McCann’s disappearance.

Portuguese police closed their investigation a year after McCann was abducted and cleared all suspects. McCann’s parents campaigned hard to have the case reopened and Scotland Yard launched a fresh investigation in July after reviewing the case.

The original police investigation had focused on a man seen walking away from the apartment block where the McCann family was staying with a child in his arms at around 9:15 p.m.

But British police now believe he was a British father who had collected his child from a creche and they have turned their attention to the man seen around 10 p.m.