London: Yet another twist to Madeleine McCann's disappearance -- this time the Portugal police have claimed that forensic tests "reveal traces of the British toddler's DNA in her parent's hire car" in the Spanish resort.

Analysis showed that bodily fluids found in the silver Renault came from a body, and not from a live person, media reported here today, quoting unnamed police sources as saying. According to the sources, the material showed the car must have been used to move Madeleine's body and the quantity found was too great for it to have been transferred from her toys or clothing as they were transported in the car.

However, McCann's family spokesman Clarence Mitchell has rubbished the claims. "These claims are nothing new. This is yet another unsourced, unsubstantiated article and we simply won't comment on it. Kate and Gerry have absolutely nothing to hide. Anything the police may have found can be explained in wholly innocent terms," the spokesman was quoted as saying. The fresh claims came two days after a Moroccan national said that she had spotted a battered and bruised girl bearing "the mark of Madeleine" in the African nation.

Naoual Malhi, who already alerted the police about the sighting recently, had said she was shopping in the coastal town of Fnideq when she saw "Madeleine" with an older woman who tried to hide the blonde child. "I knew the minute I saw her from close-up that it was Madeleine. I'd seen her picture a thousand times and the girl I saw was her. She had that distinctive right eye where her pupil runs into the iris. "She caught our attention because she was so blonde and pretty. As we walked up to them the woman, aged around 40, tried to hide the girl behind her and shield her face," she had claimed.

Source : PTI