Brit boy who went missing in Portugal's Praia da Luz found

Brit boy who went missing in Portugal's Praia da Luz found



The tourist parents of a British boy who vanished in the same Algarve holiday resort as Madeleine McCann were back with their son today after he was found by a Good Samaritan pensioner and taken into a police station.

But they were facing further agony after being told a police file is being passed to prosecutors to decide whether they should be charged with child abandonment after it emerged the seven-year-old vanished after getting ahead of them as they walked into Praia da Luz.

They lost sight of the youngster around 11.40am as they walked down a hill known locally as Ponta Negra hill to the east of the holiday resort where Madeleine, then three, disappeared from her parents' holiday apartment.

Police sources said they spent nearly an hour looking for him before calling 999 at 12.30pm.



The alarm sparked a major police response, with specialist criminal investigation officers mobilised.

An all-ports alert was sounded and police roadblocks began to be set up. Locals also reported police from Portugal's GNR force were making door-to-door inquiries in the area.

Maritime Police were also asked to get involved and carried out searches near Praia da Luz beach.

The search, set to be stepped up with the arrival of a specialist team from Lisbon, was called off around 1pm after the youngster was taken into a police station in Lagos near Praia da Luz.



It was initially thought he had arrived at the station around 4pm.

But police spokesman Sandra Panazete, who works for Portugal's PSP force said this afternoon: 'Around 1pm a 65-year-old British man appeared at the PSP station in Lagos with a seven year-old British boy who he found in Praia da Luz.

'Apparently the boy approached him asking for help as the man was speaking in English.

'The boy was okay. He didn't look injured, just fine and relaxed.

'At 1.30pm father and four GNR police officers went to the police station to pick him up.'



A source close to the inquiry said there was no suggestion the boy had come to any harm whatsoever while he was missing.

He said the youngster had got lost after getting ahead of his parents as they walked down Ponta Negra Hill towards the town of Praia da Luz and its beach.

The well-placed source said: 'They had the boy in their sight but got worried as they were nearing town and started running to reach him but lost sight of him.

'It was around 11.40am. They tried to look for him but with no joy and made an emergency call at 12.30pm.

'The first GNR police got into Praia da Luz around 12.40pm.

'Border police and other authorities were informed as per standard procedure and officers were activating more resources and establishing a security perimeter when they got a call from the PSP to say the boy was at their station in Lagos.'



Last night authorities confirmed police would be reporting the episode to prosecutors so they could decide whether to take further action.

An insider said: 'It is highly unlikely this will go any further but the GNR is obliged to act in this way.'

Praia da Luz is still synonymous with the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, then three, from her family holiday apartment on May 3 2007.

Scotland Yard and a Portuguese police team are still probing the mystery more than ten years on.