The case of missing British toddler Madeleine McCann has been reopened six years after she disappeared, thanks to new evidence cited by investigators.
McCann vanished from her hotel room during family vacation in Portugal. Police in that country effectively gave up trying to find her five years ago.
Madeleine's parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, had long campaigned from their home in central England for the Portuguese investigation to resume.
In a statement Thursday, they said they were "very pleased."
"We hope that this will finally lead to (Madeleine) being found and to the discovery of whoever is responsible for this crime," Kate and Gerry McCann said.
Madeleine went missing just before her fourth birthday. The couple, both doctors, continue to care for Madeleine's younger siblings, twins Sean and Amelie.
McCann's disappearance sparked global interest. In a stunning twist, Portuguese police briefly considered the parents suspects before they were cleared.
Portuguese police closed the case in 2008, having detected no crime.
However, a team of detectives from Porto, in northern Portugal, began reviewing evidence in 2011. They had not been involved in the original investigation.
The public prosecutor's office in Lisbon said it decided to reopen the investigation after new leads emerged during the case review. It did not elaborate.
The case is subject to Portugal's judicial secrecy law.
British police, meanwhile, launched Operation Grange in 2011 to try to find out what happened to Madeleine and have also "identified new avenues."
They say both the timeline and the version of events surrounding the girl's disappearance have changed significantly as new information has emerged.
British detectives say it's possible that Madeleine is still alive, and released a computer-generated image of a person they were interested in questioning.
It's an encouraging sign. We continue to hope for her safe return, along with that of Lisa Irwin and so many others who have been tragically abducted.
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