Aformer nanny who looked after Madeleine McCann has opened up about the night the little girl disappeared. Madeleine was on holiday with her twin siblings and parents Kate and Gerry in Praia da Luz, Portugal when she vanished in May 2007. It’s been almost ten years and in an interview with The Mirror‘s Matthew Young, the ex-nanny has recalled that night’s terrible events.

The former child minder, who has not been named, said: “A parent came to me and said there was something going on, and said someone’s looking for a child, I didn’t instantly think it was Maddie. I walked into Kate crying, friends comforting her, Gerry looking under cars, and it just blew up. I don’t even think she saw me. I just stood next to her and tried to comfort her. She was pacing up and down. The worst possible thing had just happened to her.” The ex-nanny said Kate was crying, “almost in a catatonic state”, while Gerry was “very distressed”. She added: “That’s the one thing I really remember from him, looking under the cars. I can’t forget that.”

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Madeleine McCann disappeared aged three in 2007

The unnamed witness worked at the Ocean Club resort in the Algarve as a child minder. She took it in turns to care for Maddie, who was three years old when she disappeared. Throughout the night, she and other employees at the resort scoured the area alongside police and Maddie’s parents. Staff also walked Praia da Luz’s small, winding streets until they were told to stop, against their will, at 5am the following morning.

To this day, Maddie’s whereabouts remain unknown. She disappeared on the evening of 3 May 2007 from her bed in the family’s holiday apartment. On the official website findmadeleine.com, the Metropolitan Police have commissioned an age-progression image of Maddie, showing what she would look like now, aged almost 14.