Madeleine McCann: Met police chiefs ask for more money to extend investigation

'We are considering a request to extend funding until the end of March 2020,' says Home Office

Madeleine McCann before her disappearance in 2007, and an impression of how she might have looked six years on (PA/AFP)

Metropolitan Police chiefs have asked the Home Office for more money to extend the investigation into Madeleine McCann’s disappearance into its 13th year.

Scotland Yard was given around £150,000 to continue the investigation last October, and the hunt for Madeleine and a suspect has cost about £11.75m so far.

The Met refused to comment on Friday evening, but the Home Office confirmed it had received a request for funding to run until March 2020, though it declined to quantify it.

But the Daily Mirror reported that the Metropolitan Police had asked for about £300,000.

Madeleine vanished from her family’s holiday apartment in Praia da Luz in Portugal in May 2007, aged three.

Her parents, Kate and Gerry, were in a restaurant close by. Her disappearance was discovered at 10pm when Ms McCann went to check on Madeleine and her twin siblings.

The investigation, Operation Grange, was described as “the most heavily reported missing-person case in modern history”.

A Home Office spokesman said: “We have received and are considering a request from the MPS [Metropolitan Police Service] to extend funding for Operation Grange until the end of March 2020.”

The Home Office maintained “an ongoing dialogue” with the Met on funding for Operation Grange, he added.

“Special grant funding is usually available to police forces when they face significant or exceptional costs. The cost of Operation Grange has been met through special grant funding.”