EXCLUSIVE: Scotland Yard 'detectives believe Madeleine McCann is ALIVE': Bespoke Met Police unit continues to treat tragedy as a missing person case - despite German authorities insisting snatched girl is dead 

• Met Police's Operation Grange is still treating Madeleine as a missing person
• Pared-down unit said to 'have more open thinking than the German authorities'
• German prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters said last year he believed her dead
• Maddie's parents Kate and Gerry have said they still hope daughter is still alive 

Scotland Yard's Madeleine McCann team has 'more open thinking' and is still treating her disappearance as a missing person's investigation – despite German prosecutors insisting she is dead.

Among other theories, the bespoke London unit of officers codenamed Operation Grange is still working on a possibility she may be alive. 

Grange is still in an 'active' phase of their probe, using £350,000 from a special grant awarded by the Home Office until 2022 to exhaust all further enquiries. 

It is in stark contrast to the German authorities who are certain convicted paedophile Christian Brueckner, 43, took and killed Maddie.

In almost monthly updates since Brueckner was first named in June 2020, prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters, who is leading that investigation, said police had enough evidence to charge him.

But a source confirmed to MailOnline: 'The Met Police's Operation Grange is still running this as a missing person's investigation.

'Clearly the Met have more open thinking than the German authorities have at the present.

'Madeleine's parents have always said if they are presented with hard proof she has died they will accept it. 

'But the fact Operation Grange still exists and still gets funding shows the Met still thinks there is still work and investigation to be done.' 

Police in Britain and Germany launched a renewed appeal for witnesses in June 2020 after disclosing they had a new suspect, who was later revealed to be Brueckner.

Mr Wolters went as far as holding a press conference where he addressed Madeleine's parents Kate and Gerry over the air.

He insisted: 'We are confident we have the man who took and killed your daughter.

'All I can do is ask for your patience.'

But claims German detectives had sent multiple notes to Madeleine's family were rubbished within days.

And the Met itself released a pointed statement correcting the allegations about the correspondence.

It said last year: 'The Met received one letter from the BKA on June 12, which was passed to the family. 

'The letter did not state that there was evidence or proof that Madeleine is dead, the MPS continues to investigate Madeleine’s disappearance as a missing person investigation.

'No letter has been received by the Met from the German prosecutor.'

In fact in May this year Kate and Gerry restated they still believed she could be still be alive.

A statement that month said: 'The Covid pandemic has made this year even more difficult for many reasons but thankfully the investigation to find Madeleine and her abductor has continued.

'We hang on to the hope, however small, that we will see Madeleine again. As we have said repeatedly, we need to know what has happened to our lovely daughter, no matter what.

'We are very grateful to the police for their continued efforts.'

Brueckner is currently serving a prison sentence for drug trafficking and is expected to remain behind bars until 2026 after losing a bid to overturn a rape conviction.

He was last year found guilty of the 2005 rape of a 72-year-old American woman in the same Portuguese resort from which Madeleine vanished and sentenced to seven years in jail, at a court in Brunswick, Lower Saxony.

Brueckner was in Praia da Luz when Madeleine went missing on the night of May 3, 2007, pinpointed there by a mobile phone call.

Madeleine - then aged three - disappeared from an apartment where she was staying with her family.

Kate and Gerry, had been dining with friends in a nearby restaurant and periodically checking on Madeleine and her two siblings - Sean and Amelie - as they slept.

Around 9pm, Gerry went to check on the children and found them sleeping. At 9.30pm, a family friend went to the apartment and heard no noise, but did not check far enough into the room to see if Madeleine was there. 

At 10pm, Kate went to check on the children and found Maddie was gone.

The disappearance was reported immediately and a search party launched the same evening including officers from the Guarda Nacional Republicana and the Polícia Judiciária, which launched an investigation.

Amaral was brought in to head that investigation and ran it for several months, infamously naming both Kate and Gerry as suspects.

He was sacked shortly after launching a public attack on British detectives - accusing them of only pursuing investigative lines given to them by the McCanns.

He has since published a book and appeared in a documentary called 'The Truth of the Lie' in which he repeated his claims against the McCanns.

The family won a libel suit against him in 2015, and were awarded £500,000 in damages.

A spokeswoman for the Met said to MailOnline last night: 'The investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann remains ongoing.'

A Home Office spokeswoman added: 'The Government has provided up to £350,000 for Operation Grange in 2021-22.'

Mr Wolters told MailOnline: 'The investigation is ongoing. As you know, our preliminary investigation is a German preliminary investigation in which the BKA conducts the investigation.

'But there is still a good and close cooperation with the Metropolitan Police.'