Police are investigating a possible second sighting of missing eight-year-old Sarah Payne at a service station, it emerged today.

Police are following up reports that she was seen at a Shell garage off the A80 at Cumbernauld, near Glasgow, at about 6am on Monday.

A garage worker is reported to have told police he had CCTV footage of a girl matching Sarah's description, accompanied by a man who resembled a computer-generated 'e-fit' picture released by Sussex Police yesterday.

The sighting comes after police released the image of a man seen with a young girl fitting Sarah's description at a motorway service station in Cheshire the day after she went missing from near her grandparents' home at Kingston Gorse, near Worthing, on July 1.

Sarah's mother, Sara, today appealed directly to the man, seen at Knutsford services on the M6, with a child fitting her daughter's description.

She said: "If this is you or if you know who this is, come forward so we can stop wasting time."

A Sussex Police spokesman said: "Strathclyde Police are dealing with the possible sighting initially and will be reporting to our major incident room, who will decide whether to take the investigation further."

Garage worker Chris McCloskey, of the Shell Old Inns garage in Cumbernauld, said: "She came in to use the toilet and a few minutes later a man went up and said something. She shouted, 'I can't get out - the door's stuck.'

"I thought it was strange a man going to the toilet to shout to her. Normally, a little girl would go to the toilet with her mum. That's what drew my attention to them."

Mr McCloskey said he and a service station manager had studied footage from the garage's CCTV cameras which revealed a striking similarity to the missing girl and the e-fit of a man wanted by police in connection with her disappearance.

He added: "We were both convinced it was Sarah. We even compared the tape to the pictures in the newspapers and thought it just had to be her."

Sara and her husband Michael - both 31 - said they were "encouraged" by the latest developments.

Police also revealed they had received a malicious call in connection with the inquiry, claiming to have seen Sarah in Littlehampton.

A 14-year-old youth appeared before Chichester magistrates yesterday.

He was rem-anded into local authority care until July 14.