Portugal: three-year-old British girl missing

A 3-year girl went missing from an expensive resort in Southern Portugal where she was on vocation with her parents. Police is trying to find her.

The girl, Madeleine McCann, was staying at a resort in Praia da Luz, a coastal town 200 kilometers (120 miles) south of Lisbon, when she went missing late Thursday, a British embassy official said on customary condition of anonymity.

She went missing when her parents were at dinner on Thursday night in the resort, said John Hill, the manager of the Mark Warner resort.

He said around 60 staff and guests at the purpose-built complex had searched until 4.30am (local time) while police notified border police, Spanish police and airports.

"It was a very emotional and very frantic night and everyone did a fantastic job of getting involved and trying to search the area," Warner said.

"As you can imagine, Madeleine's parents are distraught and not doing very well at all."

He said there was no physical evidence that the girl had been abducted from the family's rented apartment while they were having dinner at a restaurant 200 yards away.

"It's still questionable as to whether it's an abduction," he said.

Portuguese police launched an investigation but were unavailable for further comment.