A woman saw Madeleine McCann being carried off in the arms of her abductor but did not realise the significance of what she was seeing, it emerged yesterday.

The vital witness, a close friend of Kate and Gerry McCann, was on her way to join Madeleine’s parents for dinner at the tapas bar when she saw a man with a blonde girl wrapped in a blanket. She was wearing “distinguishable” pink pyjamas, the woman has told police. At the time she thought it was odd, but only realised to her horror too late that it was probably Madeleine. The witness, who is back in Britain, is said to be racked with guilt, but the McCanns do not blame her.

The woman saw the man close to the open window of the bedroom where Madeleine, then 3, had been sleeping with her two-year-old twin brother and sister, Sean and Amelie.

Her statement is the clearest evidence yet about what happened on the night Madeleine disappeared 25 days ago.

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The woman saw the man at 9.30pm as she arrived late for dinner with Mr and Mrs McCann and other friends at the Ocean Club resort in Praia da Luz, where they were staying. She did not realise the significance until Madeleine’s mother went to check on her children 30 minutes later, discovered her daughter was missing and came back in an hysterical state. Madeleine had been wearing pink and white pyjamas.

The friend reported the sighting to police immediately but detectives released the description only after Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister in waiting, intervened last week. Despite the three-week delay, hundreds of people have called police with information.

The man is white, 35 to 40 years old, of medium build and 5ft 10in. He has short hair and was wearing a dark jacket, light beige trousers and dark shoes.

At least one other witness has reported seeing a person carrying a child close to the church in Praia da Luz. Mrs McCann and her husband yesterday made one of their regular visits to the Catholic service at Our Lady of Light church where prayers were said for their daughter’s return.

A police source said that the friend was in a group of three British couples and a single woman who had travelled with the McCanns to Portugal. She thought the man’s behaviour was unusual but assumed that it was a father taking his sleeping daughter home and had no reason to think it suspicious. “He was walking urgently, neither running or walking but something in between,” the source said.

“It was only when Kate said that Madeleine had gone that she made the connection. She had seen enough to make her believe it was Madeleine and she had described the pyjamas, which were distinguishable. She feels guilty that she was the last person to see Madeleine and didn’t do anything, but there is no sense of hostility [from the McCanns].”

Mrs McCann and her husband are convinced that it was the abductor and are angry at the delay in releasing the description. “In the view of the parents this sighting was Madeleine was being taken,” said the police source. “They have put a timeline together, which they have presented to police, and believe this was Madeline. That is why they have never believed she had wandered off.”

Mrs McCann discovered her daughter was missing when she entered her ground-floor bedroom at 10pm. It is believed that Madeleine was taken between 9.10pm and 9.15pm.

The rear patio doors to the apartment had been left unlocked to allow easy access for regular checks by the parents.

Mr and Mrs McCann, both 38, had grown frustrated about the failure of the Portuguese police to make a public appeal for sightings of the abductor.

When their friend returned home she repeated the statement to Leicester police, which is coordinating the inquiry in Britain and regards her as the principal witness. The police source said: “The officers who were first given the description just did not seem interested.”

Mr McCann, a consultant cardiologist, had several telephone conversations with Mr Brown last week after he promised to help the couple. British Government officials put pressure on their counterparts in Lisbon for the description to be released despite the appeal breaching strict Portuguese laws covering police investigations.

Why secrecy surrounds inquiry

— The legal system in Portugal prohibits police from divulging information about the state of an investigation

— Such secrecy is meant to “protect the integrity of the inquiry” and avoid tipping off potential suspects

— The ban is also designed to protect a suspect’s right to a fair trial

— Police have emphasised that they would still release information to the public if it were deemed important

— Police reluctance to release the photofit they had been showing to local people was explained when it transpired that there was little to see. A shopkeeper called the face “an egg with hair”

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