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Madeleine Search Dramatically Scaled Back

The number of Metropolitan Police staff investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann is being reduced from 29 to four.

Despite the move, Scotland Yard insists the investigation has not yet reached its conclusion and "there are still focused lines of investigation to be pursued".

"The Met investigation has been painstaking and thorough and has for the first time brought together in one place what was disparate information across the world," Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley, who has overseen the inquiry since 2012, said.

"This work has enabled us to better understand events the night Madeleine McCann went missing and ensure every possible measure is being taken to find out what happened to her."

Madeleine was three years old when she vanished while on a family holiday in Portugal in May 2007.

Her parents Gerry and Kate McCann were dining with friends near their rented holiday apartment in Praia da Luz at the time.

Portuguese police abandoned their investigation after 15 months without establishing any clues to the mystery, and for three years there was no official search for Madeleine.

With Home Office backing, Scotland Yard began a review of evidence in 2011 and then launched a full-scale investigation two years ago.

The probe has cost millions of pounds and spanned several countries, but so far no arrests have been made.

Police say more than 60 "persons of interest" have been investigated, while 650 sex offenders have "been considered".

Madeleine's parents say they "fully understand" why the police operation is being scaled back and remain hopeful there will be a breakthrough.

"Whilst we do not know what happened to Madeleine, we remain hopeful that she may still be found given the ongoing lines of inquiry," they said.

Their daughter's disappearance triggered one of the most high-profile missing persons investigations in British history.

In 2014, a team of around 30 officers and police staff travelled to the area to Praia da Luz to search a four acre site not far from where the McCanns had been staying.

And earlier this year, British detectives contacted their Australian counterparts after a young girl's body was found beside a highway in remote South Australia.

However local police "totally excluded" the possibility it could be Madeleine.