Mystery girl in Maddy hunt

This CCTV image of a girl matching Madeleine McCann's description was released for the first time today.

It shows her holding the hand of a woman as they wait to be served at a service station checkout near Lagos, a few miles from Praia da Luz.

The time line on the footage says it was taken at 11.10am on 4 May last year - 13 hours after Madeleine went missing from the McCann family's holiday apartment.

At the time there were reports of staff at a petrol station on the N22 becoming suspicious of the behaviour of a woman with a blonde girl.

Portuguese police did not release the footage at the time of the huge hunt for Madeleine - it is contained in a 30,000-page file made public today.

It is one of several possible sightings of Madeleine investigated by Algarve detectives. The files contain images of other girls sighted at service stations and also two e-fits, both of men seen acting suspiciously in Praia da Luz days before Madeleine vanished.

At the time Portuguese police sources claimed the CCTV footage represented a possible major breakthrough. But it is not clear if the image released today was thoroughly checked by Portuguese officers. Clarence Mitchell, spokesman for Kate and Gerry , who were cleared of any involvement in their daughter's disappearance last month, said today: "Was that sighting followed up and ruled out properly? We just don't know."

The police files also contain the bar bill run up by the McCanns and their friends on the night and demonstrate that the nine adults had - at the point Madeleine disappeared - drunk just two to three bottles of wine between them.

It blows a hole in suggestions allegedly leaked by Portuguese police that the friends had consumed several bottles and were drunk.