Madeleine search to enter ‘substantial phase’

Detectives investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann are to stage "a substantial phase of operational activity" in Portugal in the next few weeks.

Assistant commissioner Mark Rowley of Scotland Yard said that officers are working through every credible line of inquiry in the search for the missing girl, as part of the “slog of a major investigation”.

He said: “In the forthcoming weeks we are going to be going to a substantial phase of operational activity on the ground in Portugal.”