Police check alleged Madeleine McCann sighting

• Tweet

NERJA, Spain, April 18 (UPI) -- Police were investigating a claim Madeleine McCann, a young British girl who vanished nearly five years ago in Portugal, was spotted in Spain, officials said.

A girl fitting the description of the British girl who disappeared a few days before her fourth birthday while on vacation with her family in Praia da Luz, Portugal, in May 2007, was reported to be living in Nerja near Malaga, Sky News reported Tuesday.

The sighting was reported to police in Portugal by an individual living near the girl.

Spanish police involved in the McCann investigation said they receive about three such potential sightings a month.

Nonetheless, Spanish police were looking into the report, which came in about 10 days ago via e-mail, the Spanish newspaper Diario Sur reported.

McCann disappeared from her hotel room on the night of May 3, 2007. Portuguese police closed the case in July 2008 in the absence of progress.