PORTUGAL: Parents of Madeleine McCann pray for her safe return 100 days after her disappearance

The parents of missing British four-year-old Madeleine McCann attended a special church service on Saturday (August 11) to mark the 100th day since her disappearance. Gerry and Kate McCann said prayers at mass in the Portuguese holiday resort of Praia da Luz in the Algarve region of southern Portugal. After the service the couple was greeted and cheered by hundreds of locals and holiday makers who waited outside the church to show their support. Madeleine, from Rothley, Leicestershire, disappeared on May 3 during a holiday with her parents at the Mark Warner Ocean Club holiday resort in the area. After the church service, Haynes Hubbard, an Anglican priest who presided over the ceremony said he thought the service gave the McCann's strength, "The church is with them and God is with them but it helps them to come and see it for themselves and to be a part of our community and pray with them," he told Reuters. Father Hubbart's wife, Suzzane who also attended the service with her two children, said the service was very much one of hope, "They are very hopeful and we all want to be here for the celebration of Madeleine's found so, that's what the feeling was inside," she said. But for others like local Portuguese resident Amanda, the occasion was just one of sadness. Despite all the publicity, so far only one suspect has emerged, Briton Robert Murat. Sightings and reported breakthroughs have amounted to nothing or proved to be hoaxes. The McCanns launched "Don't You Forget about Me", a channel on video-sharing Web site YouTube to help trace missing children, to mark 100 days without their daughter. While the British media has remained supportive of the family, other journalists and some members of the public have been more critical. They have questioned why the couple had left their children alone, and suggested that their behaviour since has not been what people would expect. News that traces of blood had been found in the McCann's holiday apartment has prompted Portuguese media to report that police suspected Madeleine might have been murdered there. Britain's Daily Express newspaper reported on Friday that the lawyer acting for Murat said locals wanted "these bloody McCanns" to return to Britain. But the McCanns said they would not be "bullied" into leaving the resort where their daughter disappeared.

ITN Source | August 11, 2007

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