Tourist parents of a British boy who vanished in the same Algarve holiday resort as Madeleine McCann were reunited with their son after he was found by a Good Samaritan and taken to a police station.
The parents faced 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 was discovered that the seven-year-old vanished after getting ahead of them as they walked into Praia da Luz.
The parents 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 disappeared from her parents’ holiday apartment.
Police sources say they spent nearly an hour looking for him before calling 999 at 12.30pm. The alarm sparked a huge police response, with specialist criminal investigation officers mobilized.
An all-ports alert was sounded, police roadblocks began to be set up and police from Portugal’s GNR force were making door-to-door inquiries in the area.
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 after the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, then three, from her family holiday apartment on May 3 2007.