A HUGE hunt was going on last night for three-year-old Maddy McCann, feared snatched from her holiday flat.

A HUGE hunt was going on last night for three-year-old Maddy McCann, feared snatched from her holiday flat.

Maddy is believed to have been taken as she slept in the complex on Portugal's Algarve as her doctor parents ate at a bar 120ft away. Her scent was picked up by a police sniffer dog. But it petered out after 400 yards.

Yesterday, 24 hours after the young child vanished in quiet Praia da Luz, anguished parents Gerry and Kate, both 38, of Rothley, Leics, begged for her return.

A friend said: "Kate rang us totally hysterical, saying Maddy was abducted. They're devastated."

The appalling news that three-year-old Maddy McCann was feared kidnapped from her holiday flat came in a distraught phone call early yesterday from her dad.

Heart specialist Gerry McCann rang his sister Trish in Scotland after Maddy vanished from her cot placed between two-year-old twins Sean and Amelie.

Trish revealed yesterday: "He was breaking his heart, saying 'Madeleine's been abducted, she's been abducted'."

Gerry and wife Kate, both 38, had been checking their three children in the family's ground-floor flat every 30 minutes as they dined with friends 120ft away.

Trish said: "When Kate checked, she came out screaming. Maddy had gone. The door was open and the window in the bedroom and shutters were jemmied open. Nothing had been touched and no valuables taken.

"They think someone must have come in the window and gone out the door with her."

Close family friend Gill Renwick, of Liverpool, who also spoke to GP Kate yesterday, said: "Poor Kate and Gerry don't know where to turn.

"Madeleine has obviously been taken. She couldn't have gone out on her own and the shutters were forced."

Maddy went missing at the Mark Warner Ocean club resort in the coastal village of Praia da Luz on Portugal's Algarve. A trail of her scent picked up by police dogs at the flat was followed to a supermarket just 400 yards away where it disappeared.

A 24-hour search by police, hundreds of villagers and British holidaymakers failed to find any trace of the child.

Last night Gerry and Kate, of Rothley, Leics, issued a statement saying they were hopeful Maddy would be found safe and well. It read: "This is a particularly difficult time for the family and we are all comforting each other. We have received lots of support from friends, family and the public and are very grateful.

"All the family's focus is in assisting the authorities in securing Madeleine's return."

A woman friend of the McCanns - one of their holiday party of nine adults and eight children - said: "We went for dinner at 8.45pm in a restaurant near the apartments as we've done every night.

"A parent from each family went back to check on the children every half hour.

"Someone checked at 9.15. But when Kate went later Madeleine had gone.

"The window shutters, which had been closed since we arrived on Saturday, were open along with the window. They can be opened from the outside.

"The window opens on to a car park. The door to the room was shut. It looks as if someone has come through the window and possibly left through the door."

Close family friend Jon Corner, of Liverpool, told how tearful Kate sobbed down the phone early yesterday: "Someone has taken my little girl."

Jon, godparent to the McCanns' twins, said: "She was in an absolutely hysterical state - very, very distressed. She blurted out Madeleine had been abducted.

"Kate said the shutters of the room were smashed. Madeleine was missing It looks as though someone had gone straight past the twins to get to her. Kate was incredibly upset. I've spoken to her since, and she's still completely devastated.

"She's also very upset that the police don't seem to be doing more to find Madeleine. She thinks there's too little happening."

Mr Corner described the McCanns as a "superb mother and father". He said: "They are a very loving family."

The McCanns' apartment is set in a self-contained complex which boasts villas and apartments together with supermarkets, restaurants, cafes, boutiques and bars.

Mark Warner management denied there were signs of forced entry at the flat claiming instead that roller shutters had been slid up and the bedroom window opened.

The firm added that police were keeping an open mind over whether Maddy had managed to leave the apartment on her own.

The McCanns were said to have chosen the complex as a "family-friendly resort."

But they declined to take advantage of a baby-sitting service which would have left their children supervised while they dined.

Resort manager John Hill said around 60 staff and guests had searched until 4.30am yesterday as police contacted border authorities, neighbouring Spanish officers and airports.

Mr Hill said: "It was a very emotional and very frantic night and everyone did a fantastic job of getting involved and trying to search the area.

"There are a criminal investigator and around 20 officers here but unfortunately there's still no information. If I was in the McCanns' situation, I'd be frustrated as hell. If there were 100 police here I'd want more."

The British Embassy said it had been informed about Maddy's disappearance.

Portuguese police said: "It's a sensitive case. It involves a child and we cannot give more information for now."

Officers sealed off the five-storey holiday block with crime scene tape and fingerprinted the shutters and window sill outside Maddy's room. A patio to the rear of the block, believed to be attached to the family's two-bedroom apartment, was also sealed off.

By late afternoon the hunt for Maddy had intensified with helicopter crews, firemen and maritime search teams involved.

A special criminal investigation team from the Policia Judiciria was travelling down from Lisbon.

Sky News weather presenter Jo Wheeler said local police had been giving out maps and telling people where to look. She said: "It's very well organised."

Wheeler said Maddy could not have wandered on her own back to the beach.

She said: "She'd have to have taken a long and tortuous journey, crossed several roads and walked three quarters of a mile."

Back in the UK police stood guard outside the McCanns' five-bedroom home in a quiet cul-de-sac. Neighbour Tracey Horsfield, 32, a nurse, said: "They're delightful people - a normal, caring family. They idolise their children. They'd never let them out of their sight." Another neighbour Penny Noble said: "We're absolutely devastated. They're a really nice family. We see them going for walks. Madeleine is a happy-go-lucky little girl."

Last night Kate's father, Brian Healy, of Mossley Hill, Liverpool, was preparing to fly out to Portugal. He said: "We're worried sick. It's a very distressing time."

Gerry McCann is said to be one of Europe's top heart specialists and a consultant cardiologist at Glenfield Hospital in Leicester. The hospital is a centre of excellence for heart surgery in the UK.

Doug Skehan, also a consultant cardiologist at the hospital, said: "He is a popular, hard-working colleague for whom we have great affection.

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