DETECTIVES investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann have received another 150 calls after a fresh appeal for information was aired on Dutch television.
The team is trying to identify a number of fair-haired men, possibly Dutch or German nationals, who were seen lurking around the apartment where the little girl was last seen in Praia da Luz, Portugal in 2007.
An appeal was broadcast on Tuesday night in Holland on a programme called Opsporing Verzocht, and was due to feature on the German programme Aktenzeichen XY...ungelost last night.
British police have already received hundreds of calls and emails after a refreshed appeal was aired on the BBC's Crimewatch on Monday night.
Madeleine's parents Kate and Glasgow-born Gerry said they are "genuinely hopeful" that a breakthrough could be possible.
Detective Chief Inspector Andy Redwood revealed that his team have now discounted a key sighting that was previously thought to be a kidnapper carrying Madeleine away from the apartment at around 9.15pm on May 3, 2007.
Instead they are looking at another man who was seen carrying a child towards the sea around 45 minutes later.
Meanwhile, the grandfather of Ben Needham, a toddler who went missing on a Greek holiday island 21 years ago, accused the Government of ignoring the case and said he feels it deserves as much support as the multi-million pound investigation into Madeleine's disappearance.
His grandfather Eddie said he feels his family has been let down.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article