The Home Office has set aside an extra £85,000 into the investigation of Madeleine McCann's disappearance.

The grant, requested by the Metropolitan Police, will allow the force to keep looking for clues for another six months between April and September, the BBC reported.

Operation Grange was launched in 2011 after Madeleine, then three, vanished while on holiday with her parents in 2007. Despite a high-profile hunt, no trace has ever been found.

So far more than £11m has been spent on the operation. The Met has previously declined to comment on its ongoing investigation.

Last April Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, then the Met commissioner, said the probe could end "within months" if no new lines of inquiry presented themselves.