British girl missing on holiday in Algarve

LISBON, May 4 (Reuters) A three-year-old British girl has gone missing in a Portuguese beach resort in the Algarve in what a family friend said today looked like a kidnapping.

A Portuguese police spokeswoman said they are investigating the case but because it involves a child would not immediately give any more information.

''It is a sensitive case, it involves a child and we cannot give more information for now,'' the spokeswoman said, adding she could not confirm that the girl had been kidnapped.

Jill Renwick, a family friend, told BBC television in London she was sure the ''lovely'' three-year-old had been abducted.

''She's obviously been taken -- she couldn't have gone out on her own and the shutters were forced open,'' she said.

''The police, staff, other guests and a number of local people continue to search the premises and the local area for the child,'' said The Ocean Club resort in the western Algarve were the family was staying.

The girl was named in British media reports as Madeline McCann from Leicester, in the English midlands.

The girl's parents had put her to bed and were eating dinner just 50 metres (yards) away with friends.

''They went back to check on her -- the window had been opened and she'd been taken,'' Renwick told BBC television.

Renwick urged people in the area to report anything unusual.

''She's very blonde --- she's not a likely child to be with a Portuguese family -- or is she with other holiday makers?'' She said the parents were ''absolutely devastated.'' ''They just live for their children.'' REUTERS KK HS1608