Hunt for Missing UK Child Moves to Bulgaria

It is a mystery that has gripped the British imagination, and terrified parents, for ten years.

Madeleine McCann vanished from her parents' Ocean Club hotel complex in the Portuguese Algarve on the evening of May 3 2007 while they were eating nearby. She had never been seen since.

After a decade of searches, and after umpteen leads led to dead ends, the search has moved to Bulgaria, the UK's The Sun has reported.

British detectives now want to track down a "woman in purple" who was seen staring fixedly at the McCanns' apartment only hours before the girl disappeared.

What has sparked police interest are reports that the Bulgarian woman's German husband, who has since died, was a convicted paedophile.

Another is the fact that the couple apparently disappeared from the resort where she worked as a cleaner, shortly after Madeleine, then aged three, vanished.

The length and cost of the investigation has drawn much criticism in the UK, with many saying it is time to draw a line under the tragedy.