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Kate and Gerry McCann are "buoyed" by news Kamiyah Mobley has been found alive 18 years after she was stolen as a newborn baby from hospital.

She was taken from a hospital in July 1998 and was living under a different name with a woman she assumed was her birth mother.

Her alleged kidnapper Gloria Williams, 51, was arrested at her home in Walterboro, South Carolina.

Kamiyah, whose real family are from Jacksonville, Florida, about 200 miles away, was not present.

Kamiyah’s case has given fresh hope to the family of Madeleine McCann , the three-year-old who went missing in Praia da Luz, Portugal in May 2007.

(Image: Getty)

A friend of parents Kate and Gerry revealed they were “buoyed” by the news across the Atlantic.

The source said: “It shows that dreams can come true and this teenager being found so many years after the event is another example that will give Kate and Gerry hope.”

Jacksonville Sheriff Mike Williams said he did not know if Kamiyah would return to her biological family and the decision was down to her.

But he said relatives were “elated” with the news and added: “They were extremely excited, as you can imagine. Overwhelmed with emotion.”

(Image: Jax Sheriff's Office / Twitter)

Kamiyah was born to mum Shanara at University Medical Center, Jacksonville, on July 10, 1998. A woman posing as a nurse entered Shanara’s hospital room eight hours later and told her the youngster had a fever and needed to be checked.

The imposter then left the room and disappeared with the baby, triggering one of Florida’s longest-running kidnap cases.

Kamiyah grew up believing Gloria Williams was her mum until cold case detectives acting on tip-offs traced her to Walterboro. A DNA test then confirmed she was Shanara’s daughter.

Sheriff Williams said: “She’s [Kamiyah] taking it as well as you can imagine.

“We have victim’s advocates up there, she has a lot to process, a lot to think about.” He said Gloria Williams was charged with kidnapping and interfering with custody.

She appeared at a court in Walterboro and was extradited to Florida. There are no other suspects.

Last month the McCanns, of Rothley, Leics, said they were hoping a new year “miracle” would reunite them with their daughter as the 10th anniversary of her ­abduction approaches.

A Facebook campaign, which they endorse, said in a new post: “We still have great hope and believe in miracles.

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“Thank you for continuing to be by our side. Let’s get her home.” A police source recently revealed detectives were working on the final theory that Maddie was kidnapped by a European trafficking gang.

At the time of Kamiyah’s disappearance, hospital CCTV footage was too grainy to identify the kidnapper. There were no photographs of the child so police produced a composite image.

Officers pursed 2,000 leads. A reward of $250,000 – £200,000 – was also offered while the case featured on TV show America’s Most Wanted. Mum Shanara later sued the hospital, receiving a £1.23million ­settlement.