First test results in Madeleine hunt
Madeleine went missing on May 3rd
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Saturday, 02, Jun 2007 08:36
Police in Portugal searching for missing British youngster Madeleine McCann have reportedly been given the first results of forensic tests carried out in the hunt for the four-year-old.
One sample of DNA taken from the bedroom of the holiday apartment from which she was abducted has been found not to match either that of her parents or her two siblings, according to Portuguese newspaper 24 Horas.
Madeleine went missing from the apartment in the Algarve resort of Praia de Luz on May 3rd, when her parents Gerry and Kate McCann left her sleeping with two-year-old twins Amelie and Sean while they ate at a nearby restaurant.
A source from Portugal's national forensic laboratories, where the DNA sample was reportedly sent for testing, also told the local paper that the forensic material did not match that of 33-year-old Robert Murat - the only official suspect to have yet been identified by police.
"There is a new suspect, there is DNA which does not correspond to the family," the source from the Instituto Nacional de Medicina Legal said.
"It is an important step in the investigation but the truth is that the DNA collected does not have a name.
"In other words we cannot make any connection between the material collected and the suspects which we already have," the laboratory source added.
However they added that the absence of a link between the forensic material and Mr Murat did not mean that he could not be incriminated but that another person as yet unidentified had been in the room from which Madeleine was snatched.
According to reports the DNA sample will now be compared with evidence collected so far by the Portuguese police to try and find a possible match.
The development in the investigation comes after Mr and Mrs McCann appealed for Spanish police to help in the search for their daughter, during a visit to the country's capital Madrid.
Mr McCann, who along with his wife met with Spain's interior minister, also told a press conference that there should be a European-wide response to child abductions.
The McCanns said they had travelled to Madrid to ask the Spanish public to assist in the search for their daughter, who they fear may have been taken out of Portugal via Spain.
Following a brief audience with Pope Benedict XVI in Rome on Wednesday, the couple embarked upon a tour of several European countries in the search for Madeleine and are now due to visit the Netherlands, Morocco and Germany.