By 3 News online staff
New Zealand police are sending a DNA sample from a Queenstown girl to the UK to rule her out of the hunt for missing British girl Madeleine McCann.
Scotland Yard has requested the sample following a sighting of the girl in Queenstown on New Year's Eve, Fairfax reports.
A local retailer reported she was suspicious of a man with a young girl who bore a resemblance to Madeleine.
The woman said the girl had the same rare eye defect as Madeleine, and she felt obliged to contact police in the slim chance it could be the missing girl.
New Zealand police are satisfied she's not Madeleine, who went missing in Portugal in 2007 aged 4, while on holiday with her parents.
In 2010 a security camera picture of a Dunedin girl who looked like Madeleine taken in December 2007 was released by a Portuguese court. But police later confirmed the girl was not Madeleine.
The results of the DNA test won't be available for weeks.
3 News
source: newshub archive
