Mother begs for return of abducted child

The mother of three-year-old Madeleine McCann, who vanished from her bed in a popular resort in southern Portugal, begged her captor yesterday to return her child safely.

She made the televised appeal as police extended their search for the blond girl and a suspected kidnapper to a radius of 15 kilometres from Praia da Luz, a resort village in the Algarve.

"Please, please do not hurt her. Please do not scare her. Please tell us where to find her or put her in a place of safety and let somebody know where she is," Kate McCann said in a faltering voice as she held up a picture of her daughter.

"We beg you to let Madeleine come home.

Please give our little girl back," she said in the statement aired on television.

The McCanns have gone on television four times since Madeleine was snatched, hoping to appeal to whoever grabbed her.

Hundreds of locals and tourists have joined the search for the girl, who disappeared while her parents were dining late on Thursday at the Praia da Luz resort village.

Her parents immediately insisted she had been abducted because there was evidence of a forced entry to the bedroom where she was sleeping. Police said on Saturday they were almost certain it was kidnapping and had ruled out other possibilities.

Police dismissed yesterday a newspaper report saying the main suspect was a British man.

"We are following all leads," a top police official, who asked not to be named, said. "The investigation is ongoing but that is all I can say at this time."

The local daily Correio da Manha reported yesterday that police had produced a picture of the suspect, a strongly built individual of medium height.

Another daily, the Diario de Noticias, said the search for Madeleine had been extended to the sea where the maritime police were looking for a "small bag" or "clothes."