10 new witnesses to be quizzed in Maddie case

Portuguese prosecutor Ines Sequeira has ruled that 10 new witnesses who have not been previously interviewed in the Madeleine McCann case, are to be questioned by police in the Algarve after a fifth international letter of request was sent and approved.

The interviews will take place at the PJ police station where previous witnesses were questioned earlier in July.

Although a small portion of the witnesses will have already spoken briefly to Portuguese police in July, about 10 unidentified witnesses will be summoned by British police for questioning within the next few days.

Madeleine McCann was taken from a holiday apartment in Praia de Luz in Portugal on May 3, 2007.

The search for Madeleine has gone on for more than seven years and last week it emerged that nearly a quarter of the strands of hair tested during the original investigation were not matched.

Portuguese police will lead the interviews with British police observing. However, they have to send a sixth international letter to Prosecutor Sequeira to authorise in order to take DNA samples from those to be questioned.