UPDATED Madeleine 'sighting' played down

Kate and Gerry McCann do not believe a young girl seen in India is their missing daughter Madeleine, their spokesman said.

Local police became involved after a British woman spotted a six-year-old girl who appeared to resemble Madeleine in a market in the city of Leh in northern India on Friday night.

A French woman and a Belgian man who were with the girl insisted they were her biological parents but police took their passports to check.

McCann family spokesman Clarence Mitchell said: "Kate and Gerry do not believe the child seen in India was Madeleine. They have seen photographic evidence and concluded that it was not her".

"We remain grateful for people's vigilance around the world. Madeleine is still out there and the search for her very much continues.''

Madeleine was nearly four when she went missing from her family's holiday flat in Praia da Luz in the Algarve on May 3 2007.

The official inquiry into her disappearance was closed in July 2008 and since then neither the Leicestershire Police or Portuguese detectives have been actively looking for Madeleine, who would now be eight.

Scotland Yard launched a review of the original investigation in May after a request from Home Secretary Theresa May supported by Prime Minister David Cameron.

Hundreds of possible sightings of the little girl around the world have been reported since she went missing, but so far they have all come to nothing.