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Detectives are still pursuing leads 10 years since Madeleine McCann went missing

Madeleine vanished from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz in 2007.
Madeleine vanished from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz in 2007. Madeleine vanished from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz in 2007.

As the 10th anniversary of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann approaches, British detectives working on the case are still pursuing “critical” leads.

Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley said there are “significant investigative avenues” that are of “great interest” to both the UK and Portuguese teams.

Officers have sifted through some 40,000 documents and looked at more than 600 individuals since 2011.

Madeleine vanished from the family’s holiday apartment in Praia da Luz in Portugal on May 3 2007 when she was three years old.

In an interview nearly a decade on from the youngster’s disappearance, Rowley also confirmed four people considered as possible suspects in 2013 have been ruled out.

He said: “I know we have a significant line of inquiry which is worth pursuing, and because it’s worth pursuing it could provide an answer, but until we’ve gone through it I won’t know whether we are going to get there or not.”

Undated family handout photo of Madeleine McCann, as her mother Kate McCann has described the tenth anniversary of her daughter's disappearance as a
Undated family handout photo of Madeleine McCann, as her mother Kate McCann has described the tenth anniversary of her daughter's disappearance as a
(PA)

He added: “Ourselves and the Portuguese are doing a critical piece of work and we don’t want to spoil it by putting titbits of information out publicly.

“We’ve got some critical lines of inquiry, those link to particular hypotheses, but I’m not going to discuss those because those are very much live investigation.

“We’ve got some thoughts on what we think the most likely explanations might be and we are pursuing those.”

Her parents, Kate and Gerry McCann have vowed to “never give up” hope of finding their daughter.