A student has spotted Madeleine McCann in the South of France, it is claimed.
Melissa Fiering, 18, said she called out to the girl, who bore a "striking resemblance to the missing British youngster - and had a distinctive fleck in her right eye. The child looked startled at the sound of her name and the "tall, swarthy" man she was with quickly bundled her out of the restaurant.
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 has claimed to have identified a girl with the unusual marking in her eye.
French police are inspecting CCTV footage of the student calling to the child at the service station in Montpellier on Friday.
Miss Fiering was in a self-service restaurant called L'Arche on the A9 motorway from France to Spain, listening to music on her mobile phone, when she noticed a child a close by, dancing to the tune. The student's friend thought she recognised the girl and they walked over to get a closer look. Miss Fiering, from Nijmegen in Holland, said: "When I saw the little girl, I recognised her immediately.
"At first I could not believe it. She was about 6ft away from me. She had the same deformation in her eye. I had followed everything about the story on TV and I knew about the 'cat' eye. She looked just the same, though she was skinnier about the face and her hair was shorter. I called out, 'Madeleine', and she looked up. The man with her was about 6ft tall, with black hair, a black leather jacket and several days growth of stubble. When I shouted out, he put on her coat and hat and bundled her away. I tried to take a picture of her on my phone, but I did not get it." (Daily Mail Thursday 21st February 2008)
Daily Merlin Insight
Servants of the Light Tarot
6.12pm NZ
21/2/08
Five Of Crescents
Prime Of Crescents
Two Of Staves
The Five of Crescents depicts a 'hand suddenly appearing out of nowhere' to grab the five falling crescents ... the Prime of Crescents depicts three figures and the form of a young child ... depiction of a new era or a new age .... the Two of Staves is bi-coloured: orange-gold & blue, bisected diagonally ... the blue section a mailed hand grasping a shepherd's crock .. the other shows a hand in a lace edged cuff wielding a knotted scourge. One a symbol of mercy and the other a symbol of justice in the ancient lands of Egypt.
Starting with the Two of Staves ... grasping at straws is the subtle sense with this card. My instinct will not dismiss this report as readily as it often has with others. However the Five of Crescents indicates the 'news suddenly out of nowhere' ... a hand seen to catch the few coins of a titbit thrown in its direction. This collaborates with my suspicions here ... too 'perfect' a scenario but too many anomalies ...
The Prime of Crescents suggests two persons watching on as a third bundles the image of the young child away ... which is what was reported in the story. This presents the other side to report ... the other side of my logical mind ... a child reacting to the name Madeleine apparently ... if it wasn't the child's name then why react? The 'cat eye' marking seen by the student (apparently) ... that which splits the opinion as per the split of the 2 of Staves ....
Instinct borders on wanting to say 'yes ... it was Madeleine' ... if it was, why then has there been the apparent report by the local Police of dismissing the sighting because of the CCTV footage? At least this time the CCTV footage was working unlike Belgium ... be interesting to see who the little girl was ... the Pied Piper on cue should publish a follow up on who the child was ...
Plus, be interesting too to see a photograph from the CCTV footage .... the interesting aspect of the image of the Prime Of Crescents ... the young child bundled away by the third person is obscured from view by 'a cloud' ... therefore it suggests the two other people couldn't see clearly enough ... but that is not the case here so it suggests the CCTV footage will be vague and cloudy and the assessment made by the Police is based on not the best of footage. In that case ... the judgment could well be wrong and it was Madeleine ....
Someone somewhere obviously wanted the follow up report that it wasn't indeed Madeleine ... perhaps giving the man and the girl plenty of time to get away from the area? Most surely there is a 'cover story' already prepared. A reporter with a tabloid spread on the girl who someone thought was Madeleine?
