A man on a motorbike tried to snatch a four-year-old girl yards from where Madeleine McCann vanished only weeks later, it has been revealed.
The man drove up to Tirna Duncan on a moped and reached out as if to grab her, according to the Sun on Sunday.
When he tried to grab Tirna, her parents spotted him and yelled at him as they gave chase. He sped off, pulled over, shoved the moped in the back of a white van and drove off.
The Duncans gave details of the kidnap bid to the British Embassy and Irish police after they heard about three-year-old Madeleine McCann.
Yet they have never been quizzed by Portuguese or British detectives.
Mum Shauna, 42, from Londonderry, Northern Ireland said: "Maddie would still be here if he had got Tirna. If we hadn't shouted, he would have lifted her."
The Duncans saw the goatee-bearded man lurking by their flat every day during their March 2007 stay in Praia de Luz and 'up to 30 times' in all.
Mum-of-five Shauna said: "No matter what time I looked, he'd be there. He was watching our children."
The family's two teenage daughters ran when they spotted him following them. A private detective did visit the Duncans and showed Tirna the sketch of the suspect.
Shauna recalls her saying: "That's the man who tried to get me."