Maddie police ask for more money

DETECTIVES trying to find Madeleine McCann are to ask the Government for more cash to continue their search.

They are struggling to resolve the one remaining ‘live lead’ left at the end of an exhaustive six-year £11.2million inquiry.

Senior sources said they need a ‘relatively small amount’ of extra cash to ensure everything possible has been done.

They said the final inquiries, which are shrouded in secrecy, had proved more ‘complex’ than first expected.

The Home Office has signalled it is willing to meet the demand during regular meetings on the progress of the investigation.

The demand means it is unlikely Scotland Yard will finally shelve its inquiry by the end of this year as expected. Only a handful of officers are left battling to identify the fate of Madeleine after she disappeared from her family’s holiday apartment in Praia da Luz in the Algarve in May 2007.

Last year then Met Police Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe said they were expecting to mothball their work within months.

Madeleine vanished a few days before her fourth birthday and would now be 13.

A spokesman for her family said: ‘The McCanns will be pleased. The fact that the police feel there is still work to be done which needs funding is very encouraging. They remain grateful to all the officers involved in the investigation.’