Girl with 'same eye defect' as Madeleine spotted

Moroccan woman spots child 'with same eye defect' as Madeleine McCann

A WOMAN IN Morocco says she has spotted a child with the same eye defect as Madeleine McCann.

It is the only sighting in the last six months that specifically refers to the distinctive fleck in Madeleine's eye, known as a coloboma.

Moroccan-born Naoual Malhi, 24, told detectives working for the four-year-old's parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, that she saw a bruised blonde child bearing 'the mark of Madeleine'.

The sighting occurred a month ago and Naoual Malhi alerted police saying she'd seen Madeleine with an older woman, who was trying to hide her.

Speaking to the Mail Ms Malhi said: ' I knew the minute I saw her from close-up that it was Madeleine.

'I'd seen her picture a thousand times and the girl I saw was her. She had that distinctive right eye where her pupil runs into the iris.' Ms Malhi explained the woman bundled the girl into a taxi and sped off.

Francisco Marco, the head of Metodo 3, the Spanish investigation agency hired by the McCanns, believes Madeleine was stolen to order and stated last night: 'We have a six-month agreement with the McCanns. We have already spent a month-and-a-half working. I will find her before that period is up.'