Madeleine McCann investigators receive 400 tips since authorities name new suspect

It comes after Met Police launched appeal on Wednesday

Investigators have received hundreds of pieces of information following a new appeal into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann. (AP)

Police investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann have received almost 400 tips since Wednesday, when authorities announced there was a new suspect in the case.

The suspect has been named in reports as Christian Brueckner, a 43-year-old convicted German paedophile who is currently serving a long prison sentence in his home country.

A spokesman for the Met Police said: “The Op Grange team have had just short of 400 pieces of information through, in calls and emails.”

Operation Grange is the name of the force’s ongoing investigation, which the spokesman confirmed is still being treated as a missing person inquiry.

However, German police believe Madeleine is dead and are conducting a murder investigation into her disappearance from an apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal, in 2007.

German prosecutors are now reportedly also investigating possible connections between her case and the disappearance of two German children.

Authorities are allegedly looking into the case of Rene Hasee, who vanished from a beach in the Portuguese Algarve in 1996 aged six.

Earlier this week, an investigation was launched into whether Brueckner was involved in the disappearance of Inga Gehricke, who went missing from a forest in the Saxony-Anhalt region on 2 May, 2015.

Prosecutors in Stendal, a north German town, have said they are looking into links between the cases of Madeleine and Inga.

Brueckner was already known to Scotland Yard, but only became a suspect following a 2017 appeal for information.

He is thought to be serving a seven-year sentence in the German city of Kiel for the rape of a 72-year-old American woman in Portugal in 2005. He has also been convicted of sexually abusing children.

Kate and Gerry McCann, Madeleine’s parents, have welcomed the Met Police’s appeal by saying they will “never give up hope of finding Madeleine alive”.

Clarence Mitchell, their spokesman, said on Friday: “They certainly will be encouraged to know the appeal is yielding results already and hopefully within that there will be crucial bits of information the police can act upon.”

Mr Mitchell added: “They are trying to maintain as normal a life as possible under the circumstances, continuing their medical work where necessary and bringing the twins up as best they can, while shielding them from all the attention.

“They wait to hear any developments from police.”

Additional reporting from PA