Central Madeleine McCann

A British woman has told Scotland Yard detectives seeking Madeleine McCann that she overheard a conversation in which a man said: “Why did you bring her here? Now we will have to dispose of the body,” the Sunday Express has reported.

According to the newspaper, the potential key witness has been interviewed several times in Britain and used to live almost opposite the apartment in Praia da Luz on the Algarve, from where Madeleine, three, was taken on May 3, 2007.

The Sunday Express understands the comment was heard several hundred yards from the Ocean Club in a residential area towards the seafront.

READ MORE on the search for Madeleine McCann

Scotland Yard told ITV News it was not prepared to give a "running commentary" of the case and could not comment on the claims made in the Sunday Express.

Gerry McCann has told reporters that he believes the person who abducted their four-year-old daughter Madeleine in Portugal in 2007 could kidnap another child.

He was speaking after a court appearance in Lisbon, where he and wife Kate are pursuing a libel case against Portuguese former police chief Goncalo Amaral over allegations he made in a book about their role in the disappearance of their daughter.

Gerry McCann said that their daughter's kidnapper must have been "laughing" at Amaral's claims that there was no abduction and they hid the girl's body.

Read: Kate McCann: My son asked me about Madeleine claim

"He or she or they may strike again," he said. "There's an unsolved serious crime and there's a series of other crimes against children which have come to light who have been on holiday so at the very least these people need to be brought to justice.

"We don't know if Madeleine is alive or dead but there is no evidence that she is dead and she is a missing child and she is completely innocent."

Kate McCann's young son asked her about allegations by a former Portuguese police chief that she hid her daughter Madeleine, she told a court in Portugal today.

She was giving a personal statement at Lisbon's Palace of Justice in the libel case brought by her and husband Gerry against Goncalo Amaral over claims he made in a book about their four-year-old daughter's disappearance during a family holiday in Praia da Luz in the Algarve in 2007.

She told the court her son Sean - who was two-years-old when Madeleine went missing - heard about Amaral's allegations on the radio while travelling on the school bus.

"Sean asked me in October 'Mr Amaral said you hid Madeleine'. I just said that he said a lot of silly things," she said.

The libel trial of a former Portuguese police chief Goncalo Amaral is due to start today after being adjourned four times. He's being sued by Kate and Gerry McCann over claims he made in his book The Truth of the Lie.

Goncalo Amaral led the search for their daughter Madeleine after she went missing in 2007 from the Portuguese holiday resort of Praia da Luz.

Kate and Gerry McCann from Rothley in Leicestershire were furious after they flew to Portugal last month to deliver personal statements to a court in Lisbon to find that Goncalo Amaral had sacked his legal team prompting another delay in the case that has now been running for 5 years.

It's expected that police investigating Madeleine McCann's disappearance may soon search a suspect's car - using British sniffer dogs.

British police have been supporting their Portuguese counterparts this week as they interviewed four suspects and up to eleven key witnesses.

Portuguese detectives have spent the day questioning key witnesses in connection with the disappearance of Madeleine McCann - with the support of British police officers. Madeleine went missing from a holiday apartment in 2007.

Listen to the latest from Portugal from ITV News' Neil Connery.

Police interviews with witnesses in connection with the disappearance of Madeleine McCann are expected to conclude by the end of the day, ITV News understands.

ITV News Correspondent Neil Connery is in Faro:

ITV news correspondent Neil Connery reports from Portugal.

Portuguese detectives investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann from Rothley in Leicestershire are continuing to question four people this morning.

British police are thought to be sitting in on the interviews of the three men believed to be from Portugal, the other from Russia.

Madeleine vanished while on her holiday with her parents in 2007.

Portuguese police are questioning four suspects in connection with the disappearance of Madeleine McCann. British police are sitting in on the interviews.

ITV News Correspondent Neil Connery is in Faro: