Liam Neeson has sparked outrage by claiming it is better to have your child DIE than be abducted.

He spoke out after filming scenes for new movie Taken in which he plays a former CIA agent whose teenage daughter is snatched.

The 56-year-old from Ballymena, Co Antrim, said: "I am a dad and I think it's probably the worst thing any parent could face — the abduction of a child.

"Death is preferable, there's no question of that."

Fuming

But a friend of Gerry and Kate McCann whose daughter Maddie, three, disappeared in Portugal nearly two years ago was fuming at the comments.

He said: "Nothing is preferable, it's not a question of comparing things like that.

"There is no evidence to suggest Maddie has been harmed, let alone killed.

"And Gerry and Kate can't begin to think that way, they have to keep going with the assumption that she is still alive."

And Christine Kenny, aunt of Dublin teenager Amy Fitzpatrick who disappeared in Spain on New Year's Day, 2008 said: "Whatever happened to Amy, we don't know.

"But what I will say is that myself, Amy's father and my family will not stop looking for her."

DAD: Actor Neeson