Madeleine McCann still a missing person case - Dame Cressida Dick

Madeleine McCann was three when she went missing in 2007

Scotland Yard is still treating Madeleine McCann as a missing person, the Met Commissioner has said, despite the belief of German prosecutors that she is dead.

Dame Cressida Dick said the force was working with German investigators but had not seen all of their evidence.

Madeleine disappeared in 2007 aged three on holiday in Portugal.

Prosecutors previously said they have evidence a German child sex offender named as Christian B killed her.

But although Christian B, 43, was identified as a suspect in June, prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters said the evidence is not strong enough to charge him.

Suspects' surnames are not usually revealed in Germany for privacy reasons.

• Who is the German suspect?

• The Madeleine McCann case: A timeline

Dame Cressida said that the Met's position had not changed since the summer, when the force said its investigation - Operation Grange - remained a missing person inquiry as there is no "definitive evidence whether Madeleine is alive or dead".

She said a small team of Met Police investigators continued to work "very closely" with police in Germany and Portugal.

"We will continue until the time that it is right, either because much more light has been thrown on this or somebody has been brought to justice," she said.

"Or if we feel we have exhausted all possible opportunities. We're not at any of those stages at the moment, and the team continues."

Despite the close co-operation, she said she did not expect "every single piece of material to be shared with us".

"I'm sure they're sharing the relevant things at the relevant times with us," Dame Cressida said.

Madeleine, from Rothley in Leicestershire, went missing from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, on 3 May 2007, shortly before her fourth birthday.

Official records show Christian B has 17 previous convictions, including for rape and sexual abuse of children

Christian B is currently serving a prison sentence for drug offences in Germany and lost an appeal last month against a further seven-year sentence for rape.

He attacked a 72-year-old American woman in 2005 in the same area from where Madeleine disappeared about 18 months later.

Police believe he was regularly living in this part of Portugal between 1997 and 2007, staying in a camper van at the time he is suspected of abducting Madeleine.