McCanns call for cross-border missing child alert system

KATE and Gerry McCann are to ask European politicians to establish a cross-border alert system to help find missing children like their daughter Madeleine.

MEPs were meeting the couple today at the European Parliament in Brussels to launch their declaration, which calls for better coordination between European countries.

The McCanns were dining in a restaurant in Praia da Luz, Portugal – just an hour's drive from the Spanish border – when their daughter Madeleine, aged three at the time, disappeared.

They believe a similar system as to the "Amber" alert system in America could have tracked her down in the hours after she vanished on May 3 last year.

The "Amber" alert system was set up after nine-year-old Amber Hagerman went missing and was later killed by her abductor.

The system allows authorities to broadcast messages on radio, television and motorway signs. In Europe, only Belgium and France have adopted a similar system.