Papers released by Portuguese detectives have thrown up yet more evidence about the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.

A little girl calling herself "Maddy" and claiming to have been taken from her mum on holiday was seen in Amsterdam at the time the four-year-old vanished in May last year.

Dutch shopkeeper, Ana Stam, said she spoke to the young girl who was with a Portuguese-speaking man.

Ms Stam claims the child asked: "Do you know where my mummy is?

She then told the child that her mother was a little further back in the store.

"She is not my mummy. She is a stranger, she took me from my mummy."

When Ms Stam asked the girl where she last saw her mother, she said: "They took me from my holiday."

Ms Stam said: "I asked where that holiday was but the little girl couldn't tell me. I asked if she was on a camping site or in a hotel but she was unable to say.

"I told her I thought she was very cute and asked if she wanted a balloon. She didn't.

"I thought it all a little odd and then I heard the woman call the girl.

"She didn't call her Maddy, but a longer name. She could have said Madeleine but I don't remember that."

Ms Stam said she thought the child looked "very much like" Madeleine apart from the colour of her hair.

The alleged sighting was reported to police but it is not clear what action was taken.

The McCanns' spokesman Clarence Mitchell said it was "tragic" this kind of information should only be released now.

"It is harrowing to hear a child saying that. If it was Madeleine, it was a disgrace that it was not passed on," he said.

"We need to know what happened with this. This is exactly the sort of primary information that we need to know was followed up properly by the police. If that hasn't been done, it is the kind of information the private investigators are going to follow up."

In another possible sighting CCTV footage captured a child with blonde hair within hours of Madeleine's disappearance close to Praia da Luz.

That footage was filmed at 11.10am on 4 May last year, 13 hours after Madeleine went missing. Kate and Gerry McCann said the girl was not their daughter.

Both sightings were revealed in a 30,000-page file made public for the first time today.

Also in the files was the fact that the Portuguese investigation had been heavily criticised by the country's public prosecutors. They condemned detectives for establishing "no element of proof" about what happened to Madeleine. The prosecutors also said none of the reasons as to why her parents Kate and Gerry were made suspects was "confirmed or consolidated".

The files also revealed that police in Portugal drew up e-fits of suspicious men seen in Praia da Luz before Madeleine went missing but never made them public. The images were based on accounts given by two British holidaymakers.

Derek Flack, from Ilford, Essex, described seeing a white man, aged 25 to 35, around 5ft 8in and of "strong physical build". The second e-fit, compiled with the help of Lance Purser, shows a skinny man of around 35, 5ft 8in with short dark hair.