BERLIN, June 4 — German public prosecutors said today they are investigating a 43-year-old German man on suspicion of murder and believe that Madeleine McCann, the British girl who disappeared in Portugal in 2007 aged just three, is dead.

"The public prosecutor’s office in Braunschweig is investigating a 43-year-old German national on suspicion of murder. From this you can see that we assume that the girl is dead,” Braunschweig state prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters said.

McCann disappeared from her bedroom on May 3, 2007 during a family vacation in the Algarve while her parents were dining with friends nearby in the resort of Praia da Luz. — Reuters