Police have discounted a sighting of a girl in The Warehouse in Dunedin more than two years ago as missing British girl Madeleine McCann.
The apparent sighting by retail assistant Taryn Dryfhout, and by a security guard, in December 2007 sparked international interest.
Madeleine was four-years-old when she disappeared from her family's holiday apartment in Praia da Luz in Portugal in July 2007 while her parents dined at a nearby restaurant.
CCTV footage showed a girl being led into a supermarket by a man in shorts, while another photo in Britain's Daily Mail showed a young girl in The Warehouse accompanied by a man in shorts and an older boy.
Police have identified the girl and her family, and she is not the missing British girl, acting Southern District commander Inspector Dave Campbell said tonight.
Police would not name the family or give any further details about them, and asked for the image to be removed from the media.
"New Zealand police are mindful of the stress on the McCann family from possible sightings of their daughter worldwide,'' he said.
Ms Dryfhout was working as a checkout operator when she saw a girl with blue eyes, blonde hair and a tiny frame enter the shop in December 2007.
"I was quite stricken by the wee girl who looked just like Madeleine McCann,'' she told One News.
"She was quite apprehensive to talk to me and sort of stammered over her words when she was trying to think of her name.''
The man and woman with the child were described as ``a little bit suspicious''.
The Dunedin sightings surfaced after the release of a 2000-page file from Portuguese police containing a series of sightings from around the world which were never investigated, Britain's Daily Mail has reported.
Dunedin police had worked with the retailer on the case, and forwarded the file to Interpol, although no requests for further investigation were made.
British newspapers, including The Guardian, Daily Telegraph and The Sun, have carried articles on the girl apparently surfacing in Dunedin.
There has also been a reported sighting of a girl in Portugal with gypsies, wearing a black wig, 18 months after Madeleine's disappearance.
