Low-key service to mark six months since Madeleine's disappearance

On Saturday, the family of missing girl Madeleine McCann will hold a church service to mark six months since she was last seen in the Algarve resort of Praia da Luz.

|PIC1|Mr McCann explains in his latest internet diary entry: "We will be marking this milestone very quietly with an ecumenical prayer service for Madeleine and other missing children in the local Anglican church."

The six-month milestone in the effort to find their abducted daughter follows a week of numerous alleged sightings of Madeleine in Morocco.

Three callers to an international telephone hotline set up last week by the McCanns reported separate sightings of the missing youngster in the north African country.

Each caller said that blonde, blue-eyed Madeleine was with the same 60-year-old woman, who they described as "middle class". A team of private detectives are currently in north Africa searching for the mystery woman.

Private detectives, working for elite Spanish agency Metodo 3, are moving forward on the theory that Madeleine was targeted after a tip-off from someone inside the holiday complex or who had intimate knowledge of guests' comings and goings.

Recent reports have suggested that kidnappers spied on the family for several days, watching their movements and waiting for the best moment to strike.

They abducted Madeleine from her bed while her brother and sister, two-year-old twins Sean and Amelie, slept as their parents dined with friends at a restaurant less than 100 yards away.

A source close to the agency, which boasts a 100 per cent success rate in tracing missing children, said: "We are giving special importance to three calls we received about a girl resembling Madeleine in Morocco.

"One was from a Spaniard, the other two from British people. In each case, the girl was about the same age as Madeleine, with blonde hair and blue eyes. In each case, she was with a Moroccan woman who was about 60 and middle class."

|PIC2|Metodo 3's managing director Francisco Marco, 35, said he is certain Madeleine was abducted and her parents were not involved in her disappearance.

He said: "We're working very hard on all information indicating that. But I stress we are following up everything."

Today's reports have also made much of the fact that Madeleine's parents used a portion of the fighting fund set up to help find Madeleine to make two mortgage payments.

Their spokesman, Clarence Mitchell said: "The fund has always had the ability to assist the family financially if necessary."

He added Kate and Gerry McCann stopped using the fund in September when they were made formal suspects in the case.

According to the Find Madeleine website, the fund has so far received more than £1million in donations.

Gerry McCann, a consultant cardiologist at Leicester's Glenfield Hospital, and Kate McCann, a GP, have been on unpaid leave since Madeleine disappeared, as they have led efforts to find their daughter.

However, it has been reported that Gerry will return to work on Thursday, initially for three half-days each week, but will not have any direct contact with patients until his employers feel he is ready.

Elsewhere, it has been reported that private investigators from Metodo 3, the Spanish detective agency hired by the McCanns, have successfully found a different blonde girl who they believe was kidnapped.