The parents of missing Madeleine McCann have been offered fresh hope after police asked for more funds to keep the investigation alive.
More than £11 million has been spent on the probe to find the missing girl, who vanished from the family’s holiday apartment in Praia da Luz in Portugal in May 2007, aged three.
With funding for the investigation, known as Operation Grange, in place until the end of September, the Metropolitan Police have requested more money from the Government.
More than £11 million has been spent on the probe (Nick Ansell/PA)
The Home Office confirmed the application will be considered.
A spokesman said: “The Home Office has provided funding to the Metropolitan Police for Operation Grange and the resources required are reviewed regularly with careful consideration given before any new funding is allocated.”
Madeleine’s parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, of Rothley, Leicestershire, have vowed to never give up hope of finding their daughter.
Kate and Gerry McCann (Joe Giddens/PA)
The family spokesman said: “Naturally, Kate and Gerry hope the Met request is granted.
“They are encouraged that there remains work to be done that requires extra funding and they remain very grateful to all Operation Grange officers who are continuing to look for their daughter.”
Since 2011, the Met Police have been assisting with the search for clues about what happened to Madeleine, with officers visiting the holiday resort in 2014.
In March, the Home Office granted officers £85,000 to cover “operational costs” to continue with the investigation, between April and September this year.
A Scotland Yard spokesman said: “Funding is in place until the end of September. Any details about future funding will be released when appropriate.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here