Where is Praia da Luz? The holiday hotspot Madeleine McCann vanished from

MADELEINE McCann's disappearance sparked one of the biggest missing person hunts in modern history.

As a new documentary explores sensational claims about Maddie's whereabouts, here's what we know about the holiday resort where she was last seen back in May 2007.

Where is Praia da Luz?

Praia da Luz, known simply as Luz, is a parish located around four miles from Lagos in the Algarve, Portugal.

The community had a population of just 3,545 when a census was last carried out in 2011.

Once a small fishing village, it's been dubbed "little Britain" for the concentration of Brits who take holidays there.


When was Maddie last seen?

Kate and Gerry McCann were spending a week-long holiday in Luz with seven friends and eight children in all, including their three.

They had booked through the British holiday company Mark Warner Ltd and were placed in 5A Rua Dr Agostinho da Silva, an apartment owned by a retired teacher from Liverpool, one of several privately owned properties rented by the company.

On May 3, 2007,  they left Maddie and her two siblings sleeping as they dined in a tapas restaurant within the Ocean Club resort where they were staying, just 55m away from the ground-floor department.

They had left the patio doors open in the apartment so they could check in on their children.

Her parents left their sleeping children at 8.30pm but checked on the children throughout the evening, with Kate discovering her daughter was missing at 10pm.

Maddie's whereabouts remain unknown to this day, as Scotland Yard continue to investigate her disappearance.



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