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Gulf Times
British girl, 3, ‘snatched in Portugal
Published: Saturday, 5 May, 2007, 08:39 AM Doha Time
Three-year-old Madeline McCann is seen in this undated photograph released yesterday
LONDON: A massive hunt is under way for a three-year-old British girl feared kidnapped from a Mark Warner holiday complex in Portugal.
Madeleine McCann vanished from her bedroom in the Algarve's Praia da Luz resort as her parents ate in a restaurant only yards away.
A rear window of the ground-floor apartment had been partly opened and the shutters appeared to have been lifted. One report suggested they had been broken.
Police in the Algarve alerted airports, ports and border posts as they launched a criminal investigation. A police source in Portugal said yesterday: "The fear is she has been abducted."
Her distraught parents Gerald and Kate McCann, both doctors who live in Leicester, released photographs of their daughter.
Madeleine, known as Maddy, is due to have her fourth birthday next Friday. Her parents discovered she was missing at 10pm on Thursday after they returned to their apartment to check on her and her two younger twin siblings, who are safe and well.
Madeleine's uncle Michael Healy, speaking from her grandparents' home in Liverpool, said: "They are all in a hell of a state. Everyone has been up all night. I spoke to Gerry and he wants as much publicity as possible if it helps."
The McCanns were on holiday with fellow doctors and their families and were eating with them at a tapas restaurant in the Mark Warner Ocean Club complex.
They had been checking on their children every 30 minutes. The restaurant is within sight of their apartment.
The bedroom was sealed off today while more than 200 locals helped police, who brought in sniffer dogs, with the search. Fingerprints were taken from a window sill outside her room.
Portuguese detectives were interviewing her parents yesterday. McCann's father Brian Healy and his wife were on their way to the Algarve.
Family friend Jill Renwick, from Glasgow, told the Evening Standard: "It is just awful, we are waiting for news. We heard about it on the news this morning and immediately phoned Kate at 7.30am. She is awful, just devastated.
"Maddy is gorgeous. She has white blonde hair. She is active and chatty and intelligent, not shy. She is four next week and starts school this year. Kate and Gerald are rushing about looking for her."
Renwick said she feared Madeleine had been abducted: "(Her parents) were watching the hotel room and going back every half-hour. The shutters had been broken open and they had gone into the room and taken Madeleine. (The parents) went out about eight, went back in at nine - the (children) were fine - went back in at 10 and she was gone."
Mrs Renwick said the McCanns had chosen the resort because it was family friendly. "This is the first time they have done this. They are very, very anxious parents and very careful," she said.
Madeleine's parents have been married for eight years and recently moved into a £500,000 detached house in Rothley, a suburb of Leicester.
Mrs McCann, 39, is a GP in the city and McCann is a senior cardiologist at Leicester's Glenfield General Hospital. They also have twins Sean and Amelie, aged two.
It is understood the family were due to fly home tomorrow.
Mrs McCann raised the alarm as soon as she realised her daughter was missed, prompting a frantic search. Silvia Batista, head of administration at the Mark Warner complex, said yesterday: "Everyone in this small village has been looking for her.
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