Moroccan Toddler Mistaken for Madeleine McCann

LONDON, Sept. 26, 2007 — -- The blond child whose photograph ignited new hope that British toddler Madeleine McCann had finally been found is definitely not the missing girl, according to the London-based newspaper The Evening Standard.

Rashid Razzaq, a journalist from the Standard, traveled from London to the village of Zinat, 90 minutes from Tangiers, where the girl had been sighted and tracked her down.

Speaking to ABC News, Razzaq said that the girl, Bushra Binhasa, is in fact Moroccan and is the 5-year-old daughter of an olive farmer.

"We found her basically by following the picture very closely, trying to figure out where that picture was taken."

Razzaq then found Bushra's surprised parents, who were shocked to be told that a picture of their little girl — the youngest of four children — had made it to the front pages of newspapers halfway across the world.

Javier Garcia, a Spanish reporter from the TV station Tele5, told ABC News that he met the family this morning. "Close up, the child doesn't look that much like Madeleine," Garcia said.

The original photograph, shot by a Spanish tourist last month, showed Bushra being carried on a woman's back in a sling. The woman was her mother, according to Garcia.

"I can see how someone might have made the connection, if they were going past in a speeding bus and saw a blond child with a darker-skinned adult," Razzaq told ABC News.

"To be frank, it's a bit of racial profiling really," he added, saying, "I guess people don't expect to see a blond girl in the middle of a Moroccan village, even though the Berber people, to which Bushra's family belong, are occasionally known to have pale skin and blue eyes."

Perhaps most surprising of all was the fact that Bushra's family all knew about Madeleine, despite having no knowledge of English or French.

Razzaq told ABC News that "the family were very sympathetic to the McCanns. They were very open, even though they were clearly overwhelmed to see us there."

"They have access to radio and satellite TV," he said, "and they had heard about the child, and the father in particular said he felt very badly for the parents."

"The odd thing," Razzaq said, "is that local police were given Bushra's picture weeks ago, and it would have been the easiest thing for them to have tracked her down and put this theory to rest."

"But," he said, "it was clear from Bushra's parents' reaction that we were the first to show up there and say that their child had been mistaken for Madeleine."

The news of this false sighting is the latest in a long string of such disappointments for her parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, who have headed a global campaign to find their daughter, now missing for 146 days.

Speaking to reporters in Britain, Clarence Mitchell, a spokesman for the McCanns, said, "There have been lots of different sightings over the last few months, all of which — no matter how well-intentioned — have come to nothing."

Mitchell said that "if these reports that the girl in the photograph isn't Madeleine are true, it is disappointing news. This is why Gerry and Kate refused to comment on individual sightings."

"Clearly, the search for Madeleine will continue and I would appeal for everyone to refocus their efforts to achieve her safe return," he said.

Madeleine disappeared in May during a family holiday in Portugal. Since then, the search for her has been the focus of an international campaign, triggering donations in excess of $2 million to the Find Madeleine Fund.

Recently, Portuguese police named her parents as suspects in her disappearance, but the couple deny any involvement, saying they want the focus to remain firmly on the search for their daughter.

Fabiola Antezana contributed to the reporting of this story.