The police said that between Sunday and up to 1pm yesterday they received eight reports of sightings of the missing English girl Madeleine McCann. Madeleine disappeared from the apartment her parents were using in Portugal, and has since her disappearance turned four years.

The reports were made mostly by women and Madeleine was said to have been seen at various locations, such as Mellieha, Qawra and Birkirkara, in the company of women. In one case the police went to a hotel and confirmed that the girl indicated was not Madeleine.

In the first report they received, the police said, a Maltese woman reported that on 20 June, she saw a child resembling Madeleine on a Gozo Channel Co. ferry. Another woman reported that on Wednesday or Thursday, her partner told her he had seen a child resembling the missing girl, in the company of a woman who was going into a Mellieha residence.

A third report was made by a British woman who reported to the police that she had seen a girl in Qawra who resembled Madeleine and was in the company of a woman. A man also reported that on 20 June he saw a girl resembling Madeleine in a pushchair, sometime in the morning at the Birkirkara open-air market. She was in the company of three women whose faces were covered and who were likely to be Muslims, and that each woman was pushing a pushchair.

A report yesterday was lodged by a woman who said that on 15 June, while she was at a Sliema supermarket, she noticed a blonde girl who had a black wig on her head. The girl was alone.

Another woman also reported yesterday that she was travelling by bus to Bugibba from Valletta. She was sitting next to a foreign woman who was with a girl who resembled Madeleine McCann.

The third report received yesterday was made by an anonymous person, a man, who said he had seen a girl resembling Madeleine about three weeks ago in Vittoriosa. The girl was in the company of two women.

In another report “a person” said s/he had seen Madeleine McCann in a hotel room in Qawra. The police went to the place indicated and confirmed that the girl was not Madeleine.

The police said that contrary to what some foreign media had reported, they would keep up their investigations into this case.

Many reports were being made days and sometimes weeks after the supposed sightings, the police said, pointing out the difficulties of confirming the sightings. The police urged members of the public who suspected anything to note as many details as possible about what they were seeing, and inform them without delay so that they would be able to take immediate action.