British Child 'Snatched' From Algarve Hotel

Ladle · 05-04-2007, 12:45 PM

Quote:

The parents of a three-year-old girl missing from her hotel room in Portugal say she has been abducted.

Madeleine McCann disappeared from an apartment while her parents dined in the hotel restaurant.

The parents returned to find the room's shutters broken and the girl missing, a friend said.

The family were staying at the Ocean Club, a Mark Warner resort, in the town of Praia da Luz.

Hotel guests frantically searched the hotel until 4.30am but were unable to find the toddler.

Portuguese police have brought in sniffer dogs and are searching local beaches.

"It was a very emotional and very frantic night and everyone did a fantastic job of getting involved and trying to search the area," said hotel manager John Hill.

"As you can imagine, Madeleine's parents are distraught and not doing very well at all."

The parents were named as Gerry, a doctor, and Kate McCann, from Rothley in Leicestershire.

Mr McCann works as a cardiologist at Glenfield Hospital in Leciester and Mrs McCann is also believed to be a doctor.

Jill Renwick, a family friend, told GMTV the parents were certain that their daughter had been snatched.

"They were just watching the hotel room and going back every half-hour and the shutters had been broken open and they had gone into the room and taken Madeleine," she said.

"They went out about eight, went back in at nine, they were fine, went back in at 10 and she was gone."

She described the missing girl as a "very pretty, very blonde three-year-old".

Praia da Luz resident Mark McCarrick said the girl may have walked out of her room.

"The parents were eating in a tapas bar and left the door ajar so they could keep going over and looking at her," he told Sky News.

"We are hoping because the door was open she just walked out."

doesn't look good