LONDON – Traces of blood found in the apartment from which a British girl disappeared probably do not belong to her, a British newspaper reported Thursday.
Portuguese police said Thursday they were still waiting for the test results.
The Times said forensic tests on the blood showed it probably came from a man from the "northeast European sub group." The newspaper said the analysis was only 72 percent accurate because of the sample's degeneration, and that further tests were being conducted by Britain's Forensic Science Service.
The service would not confirm the report, saying analysis of the samples was ongoing.
Madeleine McCann, 4, vanished May 3 from an apartment where she was sleeping with her 2-year-old twin siblings in a tourist complex on Portugal's southern Algarve coast while her parents were dining in the hotel's restaurant.
Madeleine's disappearance triggered an international search, and her parents have traveled throughout Europe and to the United States to publicize the effort to find her.
The blood traces, found by sniffer dogs, fueled speculation that the child could have been harmed or murdered in the room.
A senior Portuguese police official said publicly for the first time on Saturday that detectives were considering the possibility Madeleine might be dead.
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