Exclusive: 'I saw Madeleine taken away in a taxi'
EXCLUSIVE Her face was bruised She had the eye mark Driven 180 miles
A woman yesterday told how she watched helplessly as a little girl with Madeleine McCann's distinctive eye mark was driven off in a taxi.
Naoul Malhi, 30, spotted a blonde girl with a bruised face being dragged along by a Moroccan woman. And when she looked in the child's eyes she saw a flecked iris identical to Madeleine's. Naoul said: "It was Madeleine. There's no mistaking that mark."
Before she could raise the alarm the woman bundled the child into a taxi and sped off.
The driver took the pair from the Moroccan mountain town of Fnidk to a port 180 miles away. The news came as Gerry McCann yesterday returned to work - and a private detective vowed to find Madeleine within five months.
She said: "I looked into the little girl's eyes and I was certain it was Madeleine. There was no mistaking that mark in her eye.
"Her blonde hair was cut shorter and she had a big bruise on her forehead and looked very unhappy. The woman was about 40 or 50, she was gripping the little girl tightly and didn't want to make eye contact with me.
"As soon as she realised I had looked closely into the girl's eyes she started dragging Madeleine away and flagged down a taxi."
Naoul tried to get into the taxi with the woman and child, as cab-sharing is a common practice in Morocco.
She said: "I rushed to try and get in. I wanted to stop her from taking the child away. But she pushed me away and yelled at the driver to leave straight away."
Luckily Naoul, who was in the town of Fnidk in Morocco's northern Rif mountain region on a trip to visit relatives, had the presence of mind to grab one of the driver's business cards before he could speed off. She said: "I was so convinced of what I had seen that I later called the taxi company."
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They said the driver had taken the woman and child 180 miles through the mountains to the Mediterranean port town of al Housima.
Unfortunately, the driver could not be more specific because the woman had asked to be dropped in the busy town centre rather than at a house or apartment block.
Moroccan Naoul, who now lives near Marbella, in southern Spain, added: "I reported what had happened to local police as well as to the authorities in Spain when I got home.
"Nobody who saw what I saw would have any doubt that it was Madeleine.
"Ever since I saw her I can't get her out of my mind. I'm desperate for someone to find that girl and bring her back to her family."
Private detectives from the Barcelona-based Metodo 3 agency who are working for Kate and Gerry McCann were yesterday in al Housima trying to trace the child.
They have pictures of Madeleine showing her flecked iris. They also have copies of an artist's impression of a man seen near the McCann's holiday apartment in Praia da Luz on the night Madeleine vanished carrying a bundle that could have been a child.
The taxi driver has already been interviewed by the Spanish private detectives.
But he has been able to give them no more information about the child, who was spotted by Naoul early in September.
The detectives are investigating a theory that Madeleine was snatched from Praia da Luz on May 3 then driven to the Spanish port of Tarifa, which is about 90 minutes away.
They believe she could then have been bundled aboard a ferry for the 35 minute trip to Tangier before she was transferred into the interior of Morocco by car.
The McCanns were tipped off about the sighting by a Spanish journalist who heard local police had become involved in the inquiry because of information Naoul supplied.
Their lawyers then passed on the details of the sighting to Metodo 3, who they have hired to specifically follow-up leads in North Africa and Spain. A source close to the McCann legal team said yesterday: "The woman was very quick-thinking when she saw the little girl who she thought was Madeleine.
"She wanted to be in the taxi to get a closer look but the woman brushed her off.
"That in itself is remarkable because we are told that taxi-sharing is quite a common occurrence in Morocco.
"The taxi journey was a long one but, again, we are told that long taxi rides in Morocco are not that unusual as a way of getting about."
A friend of the McCanns confirmed Metodo 3 were investigating the sighting.
He said: "It is one of a number of leads currently being followed up.
"We are not describing it as a breakthrough, nor are we dismissing it. It would be wrong to constantly get ones hopes up."
Gerry and Kate will tomorrow mark the six month anniversary of Madeleine's disappearance by attending a church service in their home village of Rothley, Leics.
Mirror
