A woman who claims to have seen Madeleine McCann being taken from a Portuguese holiday apartment has spoken in public for the first time.

Jane Tanner said she was adamant that she had seen Madeleine being abducted from the Ocean Club resort in Praia da Luz on May 3.

Ms Tanner insisted that she had done everything to help with the police investigation, but decided to talk to the media after being described as “a liar and a fantasist”.

“I know what I saw and I think it’s important that people know what I saw because I believe Madeleine was abducted,” she said.

Ms Tanner was among a group of seven friends who dined with Madeleine’s parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, at a tapas bar while the girl and the McCanns’ two other children slept in their apartment near by.

She claims to have seen a man walking away from the McCanns’ accommodation with a sleeping child at 9.15pm as she went to check on her own child. Detectives want to reinterview Ms Tanner and her partner, Russell O’Brien, about apparent inconsistencies in accounts of the events of May 3. The couple, from Exeter, are likely to be made arguidos, or official suspects, in the case.

A description from Ms Tanner has been used by an artist hired by the McCanns to create an impression of the man who they believe stole their daughter just before her fourth birthday. Ms Tanner had described the abductor as aged between 35 and 40, about 5ft 6in (1.7m) tall and slim. She said that he was carrying a child wearing similar pyjamas to those worn by Madeleine.

The McCanns, from Rothley, Leicestershire, were on holiday in the Algarve with Ms Payne, Dr O’Brien, 36, Dr Matthew Oldfield, 37, his wife Rachael, 36, David Payne, 41, his wife Fiona, 34, and her mother, Dianne Webster.

Ms Tanner said that she saw a man walking away from the complex with a child, but at the time had thought nothing of it. It was another 45 minutes before friends informed her that Madeleine had disappeared. She now says she is convinced that the child was Madeleine.

She said that Mrs Oldfield came to her holiday apartment to tell her that Madeleine had gone at about 10pm on May 3. “Then I saw Kate and Fiona running around shouting ‘Madeleine’, and Kate said to me, ‘Jane, Madeleine’s gone, Madeleine’s gone’,” she said. “And that’s the first I heard.”

Much of the Portuguese police investigation has focused on the sequence and time of events on the night of May 3. Recollections of events from the so-called Tapas Nine have come under intense scrutiny.

The police want to speak to all the friends who were with the McCanns on the night Madeleine vanished. They are reassessing the case but still believe that Madeleine was either abducted or died as a result of an accident in the holiday flat.

Ms Tanner said: “I have not spoken because the Portuguese police told us not to talk about these things at all. From day one we have done everything we could to help them with the investigation. Maybe I am talking now because I have been called a liar and a fantasist.”

Portuguese detectives had refused to release any details about Ms Tanner’s sighting for three weeks because of concerns about its accuracy and concerns that it could hinder the inquiry.

Ms Tanner denied reports she has refused to co-operate with Portuguese detectives or that she changed her story. The group have reportedly been accused of a pact of silence by the Portuguese police about the night that Madeleine disappeared.

An independent witness who was in the area where Ms Tanner said that she had seen the abduction told police that he could not recall seeing the mystery man or Ms Tanner. Jeremy Wilkins, a television producer from London, has refused to discuss the case in public.

Mr and Mrs McCann, both 39, were both named formal suspects in September after separate DNA tests on forensic traces from their apartment and hire car. No charges have been brought and they both deny any involvement.

— The Jane Tanner interview will be broadcast during Panorama: The Mystery of Madeleine McCann on BBC One, on Monday, November 19, at 9pm.

Explore UK News

• Crime News

• Education News

• Health News

• Scotland News

Times Recommends

• Times Christmas appeal: Letter from the Editor
• Conferences — what a waste of money
• Schools supremo learns a painful lesson