Police have been pictured posing with a young British boy who was found safe after he went missing in the same holiday resort where Madeleine McCann was kidnapped 10 years ago.

The photograph, which was uploaded to social media, shows the youngster, seven, stood in the middle of four grinning officers.

His disappearance from the Praia da Luz resort, in Portugal, sparked a major police response that saw specialist criminal investigation officers mobilised and road blocks ordered.

The frantic search was called off after about an hour when the boy was brought into a police station by a British pensioner he had approached for help.

Police officers give thumbs up with the British boy, whose face has been obscured for privacy reasons

Pictured: The village of Praia da Luz seen from the beach in Algarve, southern Portugal, where Madeleine McCann disappeared ten years ago

The youngster's parents were facing further agony after being told a police file is being passed to prosecutors to decide whether they should be charged with child abandonment after it emerged the youngster vanished after getting ahead of them as they walked into Praia da Luz.

The parents of Madeleine McCann said they are 'hugely relieved' that the boy was found safe.

Family spokesman Clarence Mitchell said tonight: 'It is a huge relief that the child concerned has been found, and we hope safe and well. Luckily for the family the trauma it is over in just a matter of hours.

'Kate and Gerry are aware the boy's parents would have been frantic with worry. It is such a traumatic time when any child goes missing.'

He added: 'It is over for this family, thankfully.'

The parents lost sight of the boy at around 11.40am as they walked down a hill known locally as Ponta Negra to the east of the holiday resort where Madeleine, then three, disappeared from her parents' holiday apartment.

They spent nearly an hour looking for him before calling 999 at 12.30pm, police sources said.

Madeleine was three when she vanished while on holiday with her parents in Praia da Luz on May 3 2007

An all-ports alert was sounded and police roadblocks began to be set up. Locals also reported police from Portugal's GNR force were making door-to-door inquiries in the area.

Maritime Police were also asked to get involved and carried out searches near Praia da Luz beach.

The search, set to be stepped up with the arrival of a specialist team from Lisbon, was called off at around 1pm after the youngster was taken into a police station in Lagos near Praia da Luz.

A British boy has been found safe and well after going missing in Praia da Luz - ten years after the disappearance of Madeleine McCann in the same resort (pictured)

It was initially thought he had arrived at the station around 4pm.

But police spokesman Sandra Panazete, who works for Portugal's PSP force said this afternoon: 'Around 1pm a 65-year-old British man appeared at the PSP station in Lagos with a seven year-old British boy who he found in Praia da Luz.

'Apparently the boy approached him asking for help as the man was speaking in English.

'The boy was okay. He didn't look injured, just fine and relaxed.

'At 1.30pm father and four GNR police officers went to the police station to pick him up.'

Madeleine McCann's parents Kate and Gerry, pictured, have not given up hope of finding their daughter 10 years after she went missing in Portugal

A source close to the inquiry said there was no suggestion the boy had come to any harm whatsoever while he was missing.

He said the youngster had got lost after getting ahead of his parents as they walked down Ponta Negra Hill towards the town of Praia da Luz and its beach.

The well-placed source said: 'They had the boy in their sight but got worried as they were nearing town and started running to reach him but lost sight of him.

'It was around 11.40am. They tried to look for him but with no joy and made an emergency call at 12.30pm.

'The first GNR police got into Praia da Luz around 12.40pm.

'Border police and other authorities were informed as per standard procedure and officers were activating more resources and establishing a security perimeter when they got a call from the PSP to say the boy was at their station in Lagos.'

The Metropolitan Police received an extra £85,000 earlier this year from the Home Office to continue the Operation Grange investigation into Maddie's disappearance. Police are pictured during a search in the Algarve in 2014

Last night authorities confirmed police would be reporting the episode to prosecutors so they could decide whether to take further action.

An insider said: 'It is highly unlikely this will go any further but the GNR is obliged to act in this way.'

Praia da Luz is still synonymous with the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, then three, from her family holiday apartment on May 3 2007.

Scotland Yard and a Portuguese police team are still probing the mystery more than ten years on.

