McCann's parents to appeal to Irish tourists

Madeleine McCann's parents will make an emotional TV appeal tonight for Irish tourists to scan holiday snaps for clues on their child's whereabouts.

Kate and Gerry McCann will appear on Irish television urging anyone with photos from holidays in Portugal to forward them to British investigators.

It is now around six weeks since the girl vanished from the Algarve holiday apartment she was sharing with her parents and two younger siblings.

An RTÉ spokeswoman said: "They wanted to appeal to any Irish person who may have been in the Praia Da Luz area around May 3 and ask them specifically to look at their digital photographs, to look at the backgrounds and look at the photos."

A televisioncrew travelled to the Algarve around a week ago to conduct the short interview with the couple.

Recent Irish visitors to the Portuguese holiday resort are being asked to upload their photos to the UK's Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre website - www.ceopupload.com.

Speaking on Crimecall, the McCanns said they were overwhelmed with the outpouring of support from Irish people.

"There has been so much support from Ireland," Mrs McCann said. "We're overwhelmed. We'd reckon half the letters we have are from the Irish."

"The amount of people we've met here in Praia Da Luz who say to us all of Ireland is praying for us...

"The outpouring of support has been tremendous, literally thousands of letters and other messages of support just from Ireland alone."

The McCann family have strong links with Ireland, as four of Gerry's siblings were born in Donegal.

In the six weeks since Madeleine's disappearance, the family have been inundated with hundreds of reports of possible sightings across Europe and north Africa, but most have been ruled out by detectives.