BRITISH cops were last night probing a possible sighting of Madeleine McCann — on a holiday jet from Ibiza to Munich. 

Tourist Frank Bode, 42, said he saw a girl resembling Maddie with a German family.

The businessman took a blurry picture of the youngster who he said was British and did not seem to fit in with the family.

He was so convinced it was Maddie — who vanished in Portugal in 2007 days before her fourth birthday — that he immediately contacted “Find Madeleine” investigators in the UK.

Scotland Yard cops then spoke to him at great length about what he saw and are following up his claims.

Missing ... Maddie

German Mr Bode — who saw the girl at Spain’s Ibiza airport as he returned home from a break earlier this month — said: “My intuition told me the youngster, who was seven to ten years old, could be Madeleine.

“She didn’t seem to fit with her family at all. Her father was clearly German, as were her two brothers — both around ten to 12 years old — but her mother appeared to be British.

"They were all speaking German — except for the girl, who I heard speaking British English.”

The printing firm sales boss took his snap on a transit bus taking passengers to the plane.

And while on the two-hour Lufthansa flight to Munich he sat close to the family and kept an eye on the girl.

Mr Bode said: “The two boys were touching her strangely and the girl seemed out of place — nervous and stuttering.

"Her mother, who bore no resemblance to her, was a strange woman who didn’t talk on the entire trip.

I was never very interested in the Maddie case but I felt something was up. I showed the photo to some of my friends who agreed it could be her.”

Kate and Gerry McCann’s spokesman Clarence Mitchell said last night: “Kate and Gerry are aware of this information, as are the British police.”

A Scotland Yard spokesman confirmed they had received new information from Mr Bode and said: “We are aware, but we are not providing a running commentary on this case.”

A major Scotland Yard review of the case was launched in May last year after a request from Home Secretary Theresa May supported by David Cameron.

Maddie — who would be nine now — went missing from her parents’ holiday apartment in Praia da Luz. The Portuguese investigation into the case was formally shelved in July 2008.

r.parry@the-sun.co.uk