The BBC's Rebecca Wills: If found, the man's DNA profile will be compared with that of Caroline's killer

Detectives have been given the photograph of a British man by a French undertaker in the northern town of Calais which resembles the photofit of the prime suspect in the case.

Police are now trying to trace the man who was seen riding a motorcycle and wearing a red bandana.

Funeral director Pierre Rabin told police he had met the man in January 1995 when he came in to organise his funeral in the event of his death.

The man, whose identity was not revealed, told Mr Rabin that he was staying at a church home in the town and left a copy of his passport along with his will.

The undertaker has submitted the documents to police.

The murder suspect is thought to be a frequent traveller who has visited Spain and Britain. He is described as European, aged around 30, of athletic build with straight, shoulder-length dark brown hair.

New leads

The undertaker's testimony comes amid several new leads in the investigation into the death of 13-year-old Caroline.

A pensioner in Oignies in the Pas-de-Calais region near the English Channel has told investigators that he had given shelter for one night in June 1996 to a man resembling the photofit sketch of the suspect.

The pensioner told police the man was heading for Brittany, where Caroline was killed on the night of 17 July.

Photofit of rapist: Matched killer

She was murdered while staying at a youth hostel in Pleine Fougeres during a trip with a party from Launceston Community College in Cornwall.

Police have also said they are "95%" certain that the schoolgirl's killer was the same man who raped a French student in the eastern French town of Nancy in May 1993.

They said they planned to release a single photofit put together from both cases.

The move came after the student told police that a photofit of the suspect in the Caroline investigation bore a resemblance to the man who raped her.

The possible link emerged after police investigating Caroline's death issued a photofit of an unshaven, bushy-browed man with long, untidy hair.

It was based on sightings of a man seen near the hostel where Caroline was staying in the days before her murder.

French police said the rape victim described her attacker as a "caveman", with long dark hair covering his ears, a broad forehead, flat nose and bushy eyebrows.

The investigators in the Caroline case, led by Judge Renaud Van Ruymbeke, are now liaising with police in Nancy.

French detectives said they had received scores of calls after the two images were published side by side in French newspapers last week.