Madeleine McCann Appeal: Response Welcomed

Almost a thousand people have contacted police with information following a new television appeal over Madeleine McCann's disappearance.

Senior officers say they are "extremely pleased" with the public's response to the televised reconstruction and release of previously unseen evidence.

Detective Chief Inspector Andy Redwood - who revealed the investigation now focused on a later key sighting - said: "We are extremely pleased with the response to the Crimewatch appeal."

"We have now had over 730 calls and 212 emails as a direct result of the specific lines of enquiry we issued yesterday."

He said his team would now take the time to follow up the calls and emails they had received in the "overwhelming" response.

Detectives say they now believe a man seen carrying a child a few hundred yards from the family's apartment at around 10pm was the three-year-old's kidnapper.

The sighting - which came at around the same time Kate McCann checked on her three children - had previously been considered of less significance than an earlier, now-discounted sighting.

When asked how convinced he was that the later sighting was of Madeleine, Mr Redwood told Sky News: "The timing and location speak for themselves."

For six years, detectives believed a man seen by one of the McCanns' friends, Jane Tanner, carrying a child close to the apartment in the Algarve tourist resort of Praia da Luz at around 9.15pm was their key suspect.

But a review of the evidence under the Metropolitan Police's Operation Grange concluded that it was an innocent British holidaymaker carrying his daughter home from a creche.

Scotland Yard detectives discovered around a dozen holidaymakers had been using a free creche at the Mark Warner resort on May 3, 2007, and would have collected their sleeping children - including his two-year-old daughter, who was wearing similar pyjamas - during the evening.

One of those parents was contacted by police and said he may have been the man - and had been wrongly identified as a possible suspect. He agreed to pose for a photograph so his build could be compared to the sketch.

DCI Redwood told Sky News: "As you can see from the images we've put forward, both from what the man was probably wearing and the actual physical location he was in, and the description of the child he was carrying, it is highly compelling.

"We believe in a convincing way that this is not Madeleine's abductor."

However, an Irish family on holiday in Praia da Luz had told investigators that they saw a man carrying a child towards the beach at around 10pm, closer to the town centre on Rua da Escola Primeria.

While the evidence is not new, two e-fits of the man which the witnesses helped create have now been made public.

The e-fits were made in 2008 by private detectives working for the McCanns, but were not made public because they seemed less relevant than the 9.15pm sighting by Jane Tanner.

DCI Redwood said he realised that the man seen later could also be entirely innocent, but appealed for help from the public in identifying him.

"This child is described as being about three to four with blonde hair, possibly wearing pyjamas, and the man is white with dark hair," he said.

"If this is you, and you are nothing to do with Madeleine's disappearance, then we really need to speak to you. It's so important for us to eliminate innocent sightings."

The Metropolitan Police team refuses to be critical of the previous inquiry in an effort to foster good relations with Portuguese police.

Six local officers based in Faro have been appointed to liaise with British police. But DCI Redwood hopes that ultimately the Portuguese investigation will be reopened.

DCI Redwood also raised the possibility an abduction had been planned in advance , with various sightings of men in the vicinity of the McCanns' apartment in the week she disappeared.

Madeleine's parents, Gerry and Kate McCann, appeared live in the studio and said they were "feeling hopeful and optimistic".

"These cases can get solved and that's what the public need to think about tonight," said Mr McCann.

"We don't know what's happened to Madeleine, we don't know who's taken her. The best chance of finding her is by identifying (the person who took her)."

Mrs McCann said: "It doesn't matter how much heartache we put ourselves through as long as we get the result that we need."

The last photographs of Madeleine which have been iconic because of their repeated use in appeals over the years, were brought to life by recreating the moments they were taken - Madeleine holding tennis balls and sitting at the side of a swimming pool.

There was also previously unseen family video of Madeleine.

:: Sky News will show a special investigation tonight at 8.30pm on Sky Channel 501, Virgin Media 602 and Freeview 82