Expats and tourists have joined the search for three-year-old Madeleine McCann who may have been snatched from her hotel room in Portugal.

Madeleine, from Leicestershire, disappeared from an apartment while her parents dined in a hotel restaurant at the Ocean Club, a Mark Warner resort, in the town of Praia da Luz.

The parents are reported to have returned to find the room's shutters broken and the girl missing.

Hotel guests frantically searched the hotel until 4.30am but were unable to find the toddler.

Portuguese police have brought in sniffer dogs and are searching local beaches.

Wheeler, a Sky News weather presenter who lives in Luz, said: "It is very intense here.

"The police are giving out maps on the main road for people to go and search different areas. It is very well organised."

The family, from Rothley in Leicestershire, were on holiday at the popular resort when their daughter went missing last night.

The parents were named as cardiologist Gerry McCann and wife Kate.

Wheeler said the hotel's tapas bar was "40 paces" from the apartment and the parents would have been able to have seen the door to the flat.

Wheeler said the child could not have wandered back to the beach.

"For the little girl to go to the beach she would have to have taken a long and tortuous journey which she could not have made herself.

"She would have had to have crossed several roads and walked three quarters of a mile."

Jill Renwick, a family friend, told GMTV the parents were certain that their daughter had been snatched.

"They were just watching the hotel room and going back every half-hour and the shutters had been broken open and they had gone into the room and taken Madeleine," she said.

"They went out about eight, went back in at nine, they were fine, went back in at 10 and she was gone."

She described the missing girl as a "very pretty, very blonde three-year-old".

The Foreign Office said airports and border police had been alerted.

Hotel manager John Hill stressed there was no evidence the girl had been abducted.

"It's still questionable as to whether it's an abduction," he said.

A Mark Warner spokesman in the UK said: "We are all hoping that she is asleep under a bush somewhere and we will find her soon."

Doug Skehan, consultant cardiologist and work colleague of Mr McCann, said staff were hoping for the best.

"Gerry McCann is a popular hard working colleague, for whom we have great affection," he said.

"The mood in the hospital is one of great concern and we hope that Kate and Gerry will have their daughter back very soon."

Neighbour Penny Noble said the family were perfect neighbours.

"We are absolutely devastated. They are a really nice family and good neighbours.

"They are delightful. We see them take their bikes up and down and going for walks.

"Madeleine is a very happy-go-lucky little girl".

Well, the trade of a maid needs to be taught at young age 

tbh if they're asleep and you're only technically in the next room then its not that bad like.

For “technically in the next room” read: in a restaurant hundreds of yards away!

...sounds like the local Boys in Blue weren't too responsive. If true, appalling.

Aye, I know I wouldn't!

Another thing, how can a 3 year old be "happy go lucky" ? Just doesn't sound right!

horrific,just watched abit on the news about it,made me go upstairs and check on my two

no i came down quite a while ago.

no no,left them up there

she wont be happy when she realises i can't get the clothes back on bella.

"both of you"........f*** it ,is my psychiatrist coming on here ?

thats scary

The fact that the bairns were left alone in the Villa is ridiclous. They were checking on them every half hour, thats nice of them, a lot can happen in a Half hour as it did. Blatantly pissed up i reckon to make such an irresponsible decision.

Very sad news, hope she comes back unscathed