Detectives given more cash to continue Madeleine McCann hunt

Detectives investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann will be given more funding for the search.

Madeleine McCann went missing in Portugal in May 2007 at the age of three

The Home Office has confirmed the application from the Metropolitan Police for more money to fund Operation Grange – the investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine – will be granted.

A spokesman said: “The Government remains committed to the investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.

“We have briefed the MPS that its application for Special Grant funding for Operation Grange will be granted.”

Government funding for the investigation has been agreed every six months, with £154,000 being granted from October last year until the end of March.

It is thought the latest round of funding will be as much as £150,000.

Family spokesman Clarence Mitchell told a national newspaper Madeleine’s parents Kate and Gerry McCann were “incredibly grateful” to the Home Office for granting the money request.

He said: “They are very encouraged that the Met Police still believe there is work left to be done and they are incredibly grateful to the Home Office for providing an extra budget for the investigation.”

More than £11m has been spent so far 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.

Madeleine was aged just three at the time of her disappearance.

Mr and Mrs McCann, of Rothley, Leicestershire, have vowed never to give up hope of finding their daughter.

In 2011 the Met Police launched its own investigation into what had happened to the child.