A seven year old boy was reported missing from the village of Praia da Luz, Lagos, this afternoon – the same village from which Madeleine McCann disappeared without trace just over 10 years ago.
But almost as soon as the news went out, follow-up bulletins said the child had been “found” by GNR police in Vila do Bispo (Rádio Renasença) and “delivered to PSP police in Lagos” (Correio da Manhã).
Almost all the stories then went into ‘Madeleine rehash’ mode, even to the point of quoting people who said they believe Madeleine McCann “could still be found alive”.
As to the circumstances surrounding this purported child’s disappearance – his name, or details of where he and his family are staying – there is so far nothing.
The news went out shortly before 3pm, and the child was reported ‘found’ around 10 minutes later.
UPDATE:
Correio da Manhã is now ‘on the ground’ following up this story, and it appears the child was missing for as many as five hours.
He was apparently on a walk with his parents, on the promontory below the trigonometry point above the beach, when he went missing.
His parents were “beside themselves with panic” when they realised they had lost sight of him, and after looking for him on their own, went to report his disappearance to police.
Around the same time – though we are not told exactly where – a 65-year-old British man (later amended to German retiree and his wife) “found” the child, and not knowing how else to help, took him to Lagos PSP police station.
CM says police are still trying to work out exactly what happened.
For the final update to this story see our printed edition, out tomorrow (Thursday).
