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Couple fooled by Maddy lookalike

A British couple tried to rescue a small child who they mistook for Madeleine McCann.

  • Evening Standard
  • Published: 23:32 August 19, 2008
  • Gulf News

London: A British couple tried to rescue a small child who they mistook for Madeleine McCann.

The couple who were holidaying in Croatia were convinced the child they saw on the island of Krk was the missing toddler. But the blonde child turned out to be the two-and-a-half-year-old son of football star Dino Drpic and his wife Nives, a model.

Drpic's wife later recalled how the tourists had tried to grab her son Leone in a case of mistaken identity. She said the couple first began taking photographs in an attempt to check if it was Madeleine and then tried to grab the child when they thought she was not looking.

"I started getting suspicious when the British woman approached Leone and started chatting with him," she said.

Quick apology

"Suddenly she grabbed him, apparently thinking nobody was watching him. When I went over, she realised her mistake and apologised."

The Drpics are used to people staring at them and taking their photographs in Croatia.

Drpic, 27, plays defence for Dinamo Zagreb and the Croatian national side.

Since Madeleine vanished during a holiday with her parents in Portugal on May 3 last year, there have been alleged sightings of her across Europe, Africa and even as far as South America.

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