Police: Madeleine could be dead

One hundred days after Madeleine McCann disappeared from her family’s holiday apartment, Portuguese police acknowledged for the first time today that she could be dead.

As Kate and Gerry McCann clung to the hope that their daughter will be found alive, Chief Inspector Olegario Sousa told the BBC new evidence had given “intensity” to the possibility she was killed.

In an apparent reference to the discovery of blood specks at the McCanns’ flat, he said renewed searches using British sniffer dogs had revealed clues which could point to Madeleine’s death.

Mr Sousa also told the BBC the young girl’s parents were not being considered as suspects despite reports in Portuguese papers this week suggesting they were now under suspicion.

Mr and Mrs McCann sought strength in prayer today at the end of one of the worst weeks they have experienced since their four-year-old daughter went missing.

They have endured “incredibly hurtful” speculation and innuendo in the Portuguese press, claims that locals want them to return to Britain, and a hardening of detectives’ attitude towards them.

The McCanns attended a poignant service of prayers for Madeleine and other missing children in the church of Nossa Senhora da Luz in the Algarve resort of Praia da Luz.

Clutching her daughter’s favourite soft toy, Mrs McCann made an emotional appeal for people to keep supporting her and her husband through their “journey of hope”.

There were new reports in Portugal’s newspapers today suggesting that Madeleine was killed in her family’s flat in Praia da Luz on May 3 rather than being abducted.