Cops scramble over false Madeleine McCann sighting

SYDNEY police scrambled to surround a man at Town Hall station today amid reports that the girl accompanying him was missing Briton Madeleine McCann.

False alarm ... the man, the girl and (inset) Maddie McCann. Picture: Stephen Cooper.

SYDNEY police were sent into a flutter today when a member of the public called in thinking they'd spotted missing British girl Madeleine McCann in the CBD.

CityRail staff appeared to shadow a middle-aged man wearing a black beret and a little, blonde girl until police arrived at Town Hall train station to question the pair.

The Daily Telegraph spotted three police officers talking to the man and the girl at the Luneburger German Bakery underneath the Queen Victoria Building.

But police say the report turned out to be a false alarm.

"There was a possible sighting," a police spokeswoman said.

"It's been checked. The police obviously took it seriously enough to check."

A world-wide, nine month search for the missing four-year-old was launched last year after she went missing in May while on a family holiday in Praia da Luz, Portugal.

There have been numerous, false sightings since she disappeared.

Source: The Daily Telegraph