Portuguese police interviewed the mother of Madeleine McCann for almost eleven hours yesterday amid mounting speculation that forensic tests on samples taken from the missing girl’s bedroom have given detectives vital new leads.

Today they will question her husband, Gerry, but friends of the couple said last night that the couple feared that they are about to be named as suspects in their daughter’s disappearance. Kate McCann looked exhausted early today as she emerged from her interview to face dozens of camera crews and a crowd of hundreds of local people and tourists. She did not respond to reporters’ questions.

Her lawyer, Carlos Pinto de Abreu, said: “Kate was held throughout the whole day as a witness and she remains a witness. It is obvious that investigations will continue, and I cannot say anything else because of the secrecy laws.”

One of the questions likely to have been put to Mrs McCann is the suggestion that the couple may have given Madeleine a sedative to keep her settled on the night she disappeared.Earlier last night a spokeswoman for the couple, who have two other young children, denied that the couple had done so.

Madeleine McCann: the key questions

Why are the "Tapas 9" key to solving the Madeleine mystery?

Related Internet Links

• The latest full coverage of Madeleine McCann

BACKGROUND

• McCanns consider interview bids

• Madeleine McCann: the global reaction

• The forgotten victim in the McCann case

Multimedia

• Pictures: searching for Madeleine

• Video: McCann family start holiday

“The McCanns have not, would not, and would never conceive of using sedatives on their children,” she said. “Kate wants to help the police as much as she can. She has been interviewed as a witness, nothing more.”

The decision to re-interview the McCanns has disrupted the couple’s plans to return to England on Sunday with their two-year-old twins, Sean and Amelie, although it was not clear exactly how much longer the family would remain in the Algarve.

The interviews come after Portugal’s Polícia Judiciária received a new batch of results from tests conducted on samples taken from the McCanns’ holiday apartment in Praia da Luz.

Analysis of these samples, which included flecks of blood found on Madeleine’s bedroom wall by British sniffer dogs, has raised the prospect that the investigation is entering a new phase.

Experts at the Forensic Science Service in Birmingham have spent the past month analysing the samples, and have attempted to identify the child’s DNA as well as establish whether anyone else was in the room on the night she went missing.

A police source said that the British laboratory had regularly relayed information to the Portuguese detectives, but speculation is growing that the latest results, which have not been made public, may lead to arrests.

Mrs McCann, a 39-year-old GP, was driven to the police station in Portimão by her husband at about 2pm yesterday. Before entering the building, she issued a direct plea to her daughter’s abductors to “do the right thing” and return the child or call police. “We came to Portugal an ordinary family of five,” she said. “We just want to know what happened on May 3 and want to be able to go home one family, reunited.”

Mrs McCann then went inside the police station, accompanied by her lawyer and Mr McCann’s sister, Trisha Cameron, to be questioned by two officers. Olegário Sousa, a spokesman for the Portuguese police, said: “The meeting is to update the situation and inform the couple of the progress of the inquiry.”

A family friend said last night that although the couple regarded the interviews as a “step forward in the investigation”, they were apprehensive about what they might mean. “They do fear they are about to become suspects. It’s been a hard week and we’re not through it yet.”

The McCanns remain “witnesses” in the investigation. However, it is understood that Mr de Abreu who travelled to the Algarve yesterday to attend the interviews, has applied for them to be legally designated as “assistants”, which would give them more access to information about

the investigation. The McCann team has also contacted the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and they are receiving consular assistance.

127 days of anguish

May 3 The McCanns leave Madeleine and her two-year-old twin brother and sister, Sean and Amelie, in bed in their apartment in the resort at the Ocean Club in Praia Da Luz and head for dinner at a nearby tapas restaurant. The couple check on them regularly. At 10pm Mrs McCann checks again and finds Madeleine gone

May 12 Madeleine turns four

May 14 Police interview a Briton, Robert Murat, as they search his mother’s villa 160 yards from where Madeleine was taken

May 15 Mr Murat becomes the first person to be officially classed as a suspect

July 10 Mr Murat is questioned but released after eight hours

August 6 Police find traces of blood in the bedroom where Madeleine had been sleeping

August 9 The Times reveals Robert Murat is set to be dropped as the only official suspect

August 10 Gerry McCann welcomes the police putting him and his wife under fresh scrutiny, as the couple fight a smear campaign in the Portuguese press

August 14 Detectives say for the first time that their investigation is focusing on the theory that Madeleine is dead

August 15 The Times reveals that traces of blood discovered in bedroom where Madeleine was sleeping when she disappeared were not hers

August 31 Madeleine’s parents announce that they are suing a newspaper that claimed Portuguese police believe they killed their daughter by giving her sedatives

Times Recommends

• Sarah Brown says 'no thanks' to veal at G8 - twice
• Stockton-on-Tees is obesity capital of Britain
• Stores blame poor sales on Murray factor