Children lie awake in fear as rumours swirl

There had been a rumour of a happy ending, that three-year-old Madeleine McCann, the little blonde-haired girl who disappeared on Thursday night from her family's holiday apartment in the Algarve, had at last been found. It circulated among villagers and local journalists and even appeared on local television, but all yesterday morning police had been silent.

Then in the first official press conference since the start of the massive search for Madeleine, the director of the judicial police set the record straight. Mothers and fathers, many of whom had helped search for Madeleine, continued to look tense as they walked around the lush Mark Warner resort, Ocean Club, in the 1,000-resident village of Praia da Luz.

Madeleine had not been located. Police believe, indeed, that she has been kidnapped. But at least there was faintly good news in judicial police chief Guilhermino Encarnacao's next words: 'We believe that the three-year-old Madeleine McCann is alive.' A suspect has been identified, but no arrests have been made, Encarnacao added. Police would not release a sketch for fear of hurting the investigation, nor would they provide any details about the suspect.

Encarnacao was, however, quick to defend the force against accusations by Madeleine's family and other holidaymakers at the complex that police were slow to act. He said police responded 10 minutes after learning of the disappearance. Hundreds of officers are involved in the case, according to a national police spokesman. But that isn't the impression at the complex.

'I was on the beach Saturday at 8.30am and you would not have known anything had happened,' said Alex Bettridge from Hertfordshire, playing in the sand with her four-year-old son and two-year-old daughter. 'There was one police and one dog out there. The helicopter and the boat didn't arrive until 4pm. If it had happened to me, I would have been shouting at someone to get people here now.'

At the time of the press conference, Madeleine had been missing for more than 36 hours. The groups of villagers and British tourists who had at first combed the bougainvillea-lined resort had stopped searching and instead were simply shaking their heads hopelessly, fearing for the safety of their own children.

'We are keeping them very close to us,' said Julie Martin, walking around the Ocean Club with her two daughters. She and her family travelled from Oxford to Praia da Luz on Thursday, the day Madeleine disappeared. Her two daughters, aged eight and nine, have been having trouble sleeping out of fear since they arrived, she said.

'This one has been up half the night shouting from nightmares,' Martin said. 'They are scared of being taken from their rooms. We always felt safe here, and I think we still are, but these two, I'm not letting them out of my sight at all.'

Until Madeleine's disappearance, however, the village of Praia da Luz was the last place tourists would expect to fear for their children's safety. It is the kind of place where children are often seen walking alone to school or playing on the beach unsupervised while parents work, says Judith Goddard from Yorkshire, who has lived in Praia da Luz for 22 years and runs a surf shop by the beach. 'In the summer, how many children do you see running around by themselves on the beach?' she said.

The Mark Warner resort is especially geared toward children. During the day, it has an extensive children's activity programme included in the price of the stay. There is a Baby Club, a Toddler Club, and a Mini Club for three- to five-year-olds like Madeleine. Older children have their own activity groups.

At night there is a 'dining out service' free of charge. It is available from 7.30pm to 11.30pm. Parents bring their children to one of various creche areas in their pyjamas during those hours and can leave them there while they eat. Kate and Gerry McCann, Madeleine's parents, chose not to use the service when they went out to eat on Thursday evening.

Jo Powell, head of sales for Mark Warner, said: 'It's very near to where the parents were. About 50 per cent of the children at the complex go to the drop-in creche.'

Kate and Gerry left her and her two-year-old twin brother and sister asleep in their ground-level apartment which, at the rear of the block, faced on to the street but was set back from it with a parking area in between. The McCanns were dining in the complex's restaurant, an area which, along with the pool, was enclosed, and faced the front of the apartment block. From the restaurant, Madeleine's parents would not have been able to see Madeleine's bedroom window.

About 100 steps - a three-minute walk at a holiday pace - separated Madeleine's parents from her bedroom, which could be reached by walking up the driveway and in through the apartment block's entrance.

Gerry and Kate took turns checking on their children during the meal. Each half hour, one of them wandered past the kiddie pool and the playground with the slide and colourful caterpillar tunnel, past the ping-pong table and the white lounge chairs and the straw umbrellas. They would have passed through a private reception area and then crossed a little path lined with bougainvillea to their house. They would have entered the house at the front door, by a garden filled with pink roses.

Now that window is covered with the rust-coloured dust left by police inspectors looking for prints. In the driveway, beneath the white arches and terracotta tiles, sits a police van. White and yellow police tape blocks off the street to outside traffic. About a dozen officers were stationed outside this morning and sniffer dogs returned for a third time to home in on the girl's scent. Rumours circulated yesterday that her trace was picked up in the supermarket, but officers would not confirm this.

One Algarve officer, who would not be named, said that in Portugal parents who leave their children alone, locked inside home, could be subject to investigation by a child protection agency. Depending on the circumstances, the children could be removed from the home, he said.

In the UK the law is not clear about the circumstances in which people could be punished for leaving young children alone. It does state that parents can be prosecuted for wilful neglect if they leave a child unsupervised 'in a manner likely to cause unnecessary suffering or injury to health'.

'We sympathise with parents and know they need time to themselves but babies and toddlers should not be left alone even for a few minutes,' said Christopher Cloke, head of child protection awareness at the NSPCC. However, he added that prosecutions would generally happen only if children were left alone persistently.

The issue of whether it is ever safe to leave children for a short period in this way is sure to strike a chord with many parents. Few will fail to empathise as they see the pained faces of Kate and Gerry begging for the return of their 'beautiful' daughter.

Since the news of Madeleine's disappearance reached Britain people have discussed little else on the Mumsnet website, a forum for parents to discuss childcare issues. 'The first thought of every mum is that we have all done it,' said Justine Roberts, co-founder of the site. She said she had been to Mark Warner holiday resorts and they felt 'like a little cocoon' where nothing could happen. Although parents felt uncomfortable about it, many would go out to dinner and check on their children between courses, she said.

'You calculate the risk, but it is so minute that you are prepared to take it. Of course there is a risk of a freak occurrence, but you don't live your life worrying about a freak occurrence.'

That will be little comfort to Kate and Gerry, who are currently living every parent's nightmare. Supported by friends and relatives who have flown out to join them, they are desperately looking to the police for answers. Others are fearing a kidnapper on the loose. Today parents staying in the holiday village of Praia da Luz in Portugal are not letting their children out of their sight.