More Maddie money as €175,000 is allocated to Operation Grange

mccanns2The British government has awarded a further €175,000 to fund the investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.

The ongoing Operation Grange so far has cost the British taxpayer the sterling equivalent to €12.5 million in the ten year search for any trace of the British girl who disappeared in Praia da Luz on May 3rd, 2007.

This new funding will keep the operation going until at least March 2018. Officers were due to be stood down later this month.

A British Home Office spokesman confirmed that the request for funding has been approved after police claimed in April, 2017 that a "significant line of investigation" was being pursued.

“As with all applications, the necessary resources are regularly reviewed and careful consideration is given before deciding to allocate funds," said the unnamed spokesman.

At its maximum, the team at the Metropolitan Police headquarters in London swelled to 30 in 2013 but latterly has been reduced to “two or three,” according to Scotland Yard last year.

At that time, the London police chief, Bernard Hogan-Howe, said that the investigations would close "in a few months" if no new relevant conclusions had been reached.

'Maddie' disappeared from a tourist apartment in Praia da Luz while her parents had dinner nearby with friends.