McCann detectives seek Australian woman

A "significant" new lead has emerged in the hunt for the missing British girl Madeleine McCann. Private detectives say they are looking for an Australian woman who may be linked to the girl who went missing from her Portugal holiday apartment in May 2007 when she was three.

Investigators hired by Madeleine's parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, are trying to trace a woman seen by two British men in Barcelona three days after Madeleine went missing. The woman was well-dressed, 5ft 2 in, aged between 30 and 35, slim and with short hair. The men described her as a "Victoria Beckham lookalike”. She had an Australian accent and spoke Spanish and Catalan as well as English.

The two witnesses are said to have encountered the woman outside a restaurant in Barcelona's popular marina area. She apparently mistook the principal witness, a 41-year-old man, for someone she was supposed to meet. They had a brief conversation during which she made a comment that led investigators to believe she must have known something about Madeleine.

At a press conference in London today, former detective inspector Dave Edgar provided an e-fit of the woman. He said she was not a suspect but that the new lead was "of potential significance". It was possible that Madeleine could have been taken from the Algarve to Barcelona by sea.

Edgar said the principal witness had taken more than two years to come forward for "personal reasons". The witness was "very credible", he added. "The account he's given is clear and concise."

The McCanns' spokesman, Clarence Mitchell, said the family were "praying this was the piece of the jigsaw" that could help find Madeleine. "They are searching for Madeleine with every breath they have got."