PORTUGUESE detectives have launched a major new operation in the hunt for Maddie McCann, it emerged last night.

They have seized phone records of thousands of residents of Praia da Luz and surrounding areas and are trawling them for 'unusual activity' on May 3.

Officers are combing phone bills and questioning anyone whose phone use was out of the ordinary on the night the four-year-old disappeared.

Yesterday sources in Portugal said detectives are particularly interested in calls made between 9.30pm and 10pm when they believe she vanished.

The last known check on the children by one of the group besides Kate or Gerry McCann was at 9.30pm. Mum Kate raised the alarm at 10pm.

Detectives believe a local accomplice could have been involved in Maddies abduction.

 

A source said: 'They are using a method of triangulation which pinpoints a persons location via their mobile and are also checking land-line calls.'

Investigation supremo Paula Rebelo ordered the probe after DNA testing proved inconclusive.

Some 27,000 people live in the region and detectives are asking 1,000 residents to explain calls made at the time.

Cops still believe Kate and Gerry could be responsible for their daughters death.

But sources say they have not ruled out the abduction theory.

Mobile phone evidence exposed holes in the alibi of Soham murderer Ian Huntley.

 

Detectives are expected to ask for the McCanns' mobile phone records.

Their spokesman said the couple welcome the reinvigorated probe and had offered their records to detectives.