Police probing disappearance of Madeleine McCann ‘are set to get hundreds of thousands of pounds in new funding’

• The search for Maddie, who vanished in 2007, has cost £13million since 2011
• The Home Office confirmed they have received a new application for funding 

Police investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann are to receive hundreds of thousands of pounds in new funding in an effort to finally discover what happened to the three-year-old. 

A significant sum has been requested by the Met Police and is likely to be approved by the Home Office, the Sun reports.

Madeleine went missing while on holiday with her family in Praia da Luz, Portugal in May 2007, vanishing from their accommodation without trace.

Each year hundreds of thousands of pounds are spent on attempts to find her, with a total of £13million being spent since 2011.

A source close to the ongoing investigation last night said her parents would be ‘delighted’ with the news.

Madeleine McCann, 3, from Leicester, disappeared in Portugal in May 2007

Madeleine went missing while on holiday with her family in Praia da Luz at the Ocean Club apartments (pictured)

The source said: ‘This is excellent news. Maddie’s parents Kate and Gerry will be delighted. It gives fresh hope.’

There had been fears the probe into the toddler’s case could be cut back amid budget cuts.

Maddie’s siblings Sean and Amelie McCann were in the same room as their sister, then three, when she vanished.

Born on February 1, 2005, the twins – who were just two and a quarter at the time – recently turned 18 and reached adulthood.

Maddie disappeared from her bed in the holiday villa while her parents Gerry and Kate, from Rothley in Leicestershire, were having dinner with friends at a nearby tapas restaurant just 55 metres away.

Kate checked the children at 10pm to find Maddie had disappeared but the twins were still sleeping soundly in their cots.

Kate and Gerry McCann are expected to be ‘delighted’ at the news of the new funding

The sixteenth anniversary of Maddie’s disappearance is approaching this year. She would be 19, turning 20 in May if still alive

Former Metropolitan Police detective Peter Bleksley told the paper: ‘As long as there are unanswered questions I can see why there is a case.

‘But, in the this time of squeezed budgets, I can also see why eyebrows would be raised.

‘I understand the frustrations of missing children who do not have the luxury of such ongoing funding.’

A Home Office spokesperson confirmed last night that it had received an application for further funding, but the exact amount being discussed is unknown. 

The sixteenth anniversary of Maddie’s disappearance is approaching this year. She would be 19, turning 20 in May if still alive. 

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