Detectives still hope to find Madeleine McCann alive despite operation being scaled back

Detectives say that they still hope that Madeleine McCann could be found alive, despite the drastic scaling back of the police investigation into her disappearance.

Madeleine, from Rothley in Leicestershire, went missing from a holiday apartment in Portugal in 2007 when she was three. Despite efforts by police there and a British investigation launched in 2011, no progress has been made in finding her.

But Detective Chief Superintendent Mick Duthie told the Evening Standard that Scotland Yard's probe is "ongoing" and officers hope to find her alive.

In April the Home Office granted the investigation, called Operation Grange,£95,000 to cover another six months of the inquiry. This came after the number of officers working on the operation was scaled down from 29 to four in October 2015.

Mr Duthie, who is head of Scotland Yard's Homicide and Major Crime Command, said:

He said that the team will go to the Home Office and ask for moremoney if they have not finished their inquiries within six months.

A spokesman for her parents said: