• Kate MCann lit a candle for her missing daughter in Praia da Luz church
  

• Afterwards she appeared visibly upset and was comforted by her mother
  

• It is just over six years since the then three-year-old Maddie disappeared
  

• Family say discovery of three kidnapped women in Cleveland has given  them renewed hope

Kate McCann returned to the Portuguese resort where her daughter Maddie disappeared six years ago and revealed renewed hopes of finding the missing girl.

Mrs McCann, accompanied by her mother Susan Healy, lit a candle for Maddie in the little church in Praia da Luz, Algarve where she prayed for her daughter's safe return before being comforted by locals.

Mrs McCann and her husband Gerry said the discovery of three women who went missing separately 10 years ago in the US has given them fresh hopes that their daughter will be found.

Hopes: Kate McCann, accompanied by her mother Susan Healy, pictured in the Portuguese resort of Praia da Luz, where her daughter Madeline disappeared six years ago
A visibly shaken Kate McCann visits the little church in Praia da Luz, Algarve six years after her daughter Maddie's disappearance

Madeleine, then aged nearly four, vanished from her family’s holiday apartment in Praia da Luz in Portugal’s Algarve on May 3 2007, as her parents dined with friends nearby.

Today, the McCanns said the rescue of the women in Ohio 'reaffirmed' their hope of finding their daughter.

Madeleine McCann pictured on the day she went missing from the apartment in Praia da Luz six years ago

 'The discovery of these young women reaffirms our hope of finding Madeleine, which has never diminished,' they said in a statement.

'Their recovery is also further evidence that children are sometimes abducted and kept for long periods.

'So we ask the public to remain vigilant in the ongoing search for Madeleine.

'Our thoughts are with the women in America and their families.'

Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight, who all went missing in separate incidents a decade ago, were found alive and well in a house in Cleveland, Ohio, after allegedly being held prisoner by three brothers. 

Ms Berry disappeared aged 16 on April 21, 2003 on her way home from work at a burger restaurant. Ms DeJesus went missing aged 14 on her way home from school about a year later. 

Ms Knight went missing in 2002 and is 32 now. 

They were rescued from the house, just a few miles from where they vanished, along with a six-year-old girl apparently born to one of them while in captivity, after Ms Berry was freed by neighbours who heard her screaming. 

She made a frantic telephone call to emergency services and told them she had been abducted. 

Neighbours said they previously had no idea the women were in the house and were first alerted when they heard someone kicking at a door, yelling for help and trying desperately to get outside the house. 

Kate McCann decided to return to Praia da Luz on the sixth anniversary of Madeleine's disappearance to pray for her safe return

Last week, Kate and Gerry McCann marked the sixth anniversary of their daughter’s disappearance. 

Mrs McCann is currently visiting Portugal, and is expected to return home to the UK shortly. 

Last week she and her husband said their family, including twins Sean and Amelie, now eight, had found a 'new normality' since Madeleine’s disappearance. 

They also said they remained as hopeful as ever - if not more so - as a case review by the Metropolitan Police was under way

The McCann family say the discovery of three Cleveland women (L-R) Gina DeJesus, Amanda Berry and Michelle Knight, who went missing 10 years ago has given them fresh hopes that their daughter will be found