Hunt for Madeleine McCann continues as funding approved for 'final line of inquiry'

The investigation into Madeleine McCann has been allocated further funding. Photo / File

The Met Police has been granted more funds to continue its 11-year-long search for Madeleine McCann.

The Home Office revealed today it had allocated further funds to Operation Grange - the Met's investigation into her disappearance.

The new fund is believed to be as large as £150,000 (NZ$292,500), target="_blank">the Daily Mail reports.

A representative of the Home Office told MailOnline: "The Government remains committed to the investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.

"We have briefed the Metropolitan Police Service that its application for Special Grant funding for Operation Grange will be granted."

Detectives refused to discuss details of the "important final line of inquiry" they are pursuing.

A Scotland Yard spokesperson said: "We cannot give a running commentary on the investigation while it is ongoing."

Scotland Yard's latest cash request amid stringent Government cutbacks, family spokesman Clarence Mitchell said tonight

"They are very encouraged that the Met Police still believe there is work left to be done and they are incredibly grateful to the Home Office for providing an extra budget for the investigation," he said.

"It gives them hope that one day they may finally find out what happened to their daughter."

Detectives investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann applied for more funding for the search in February.

Government funding for the investigation has historically been agreed every six months, with £154,000 (NZ$300,000) being granted from October last year.

That funding is due to run out in just five days.

More than £11million (NZ$21 million) has been spent so far on the probe to find the missing girl, who vanished from the family's holiday apartment in Praia da Luz in Portugal in May 2007, aged three.

She would now be nearly 15.

A Home Office spokesperson added: "The inquiry has not reached a conclusion and we're continuing with focus and determination. There are no immediate plans to reduce officer numbers further at this time."

Operation Grange has been one of the longest, most high-profile and costly police investigations in history.

Launched in May 2011, officers have sifted (and translated) 40,000 documents produced by Portuguese police who conducted the initial investigation, and by the eight teams of private detectives who have worked on the case.

Some 600 "persons of interest: have been examined and "sightings" of Madeleine — in Brazil, India, Morocco and Paraguay, on a German plane and in a New Zealand supermarket — assessed.

The Portuguese investigation of Madeleine's disappearance was criticised by the British authorities as being not fit for purpose.

Scotland Yard began an investigative review into the disappearance in 2011, on the orders of then-Prime Minister David Cameron.