Last photo of Madeleine released

Laughing in the sunshine and dangling her feet in the swimming pool, a carefree Madeleine McCann poses for a happy family snap just hours before she was abducted. Seven hours after the photograph was taken by her mother Kate at 2.29pm on May 3, Madeleine had been snatched from her bed in the holiday resort of Praia da Luz in Portugal.

The McCann family have given a glimpse of those precious final hours, releasing the last photograph known to have been taken of Madeleine before she was snatched.

Her father Gerry, who has spoken of his daughter's abduction as causing a "tidal wave" of destruction, sits proudly with his two young daughters by his side. Next to him in an orange top is his two-year-old daughter Amelie whose twin brother Sean is off playing. Beside Amelie is her smiling sister Madeleine, who was looking forward to her fourth birthday at the end of the holiday.

Seven hours later, as Mr and Mrs McCann, both 38, were having a quiet dinner with friends in a tapas bar by the pool, Madeleine, Sean and Amelie were asleep in the apartment. The couple were making regular checks on the children, but some time between 9.10pm and 10pm someone entered the McCann's apartment and carried her away. It is thought she was still asleep.

Her disappearance has been publicised worldwide, but despite an extraordinary campaign to make her image known across Europe there has been no news of her whereabouts. Mr and Mrs McCann, backed by an army of friends and family, remain convinced that Madeleine is alive and are praying, along with people around the world, for her safe return.

A fighting fund for their campaign has reached almost £300,000 and 125 million people have clicked on their www.findmadeleine.com website. The couple are drawing up plans to travel Europe giving interviews to boost Madeleine's profile.

But three weeks after Madeleine's disappearance there have been some signs of frustration at the pace of progress. A source close to the McCann family said that while Madeleine's parents were happy with the "overall thrust" of the police investigation, they felt frustrated that questions and concerns they had were not being addressed quickly enough.

It also emerged that police had been told of an attempted abduction five months ago of a girl similar to Madeleine around half an hour from Praia da Luz. Three-year-old Carolina Santos was led away by a man thought to be Moroccan on Christmas Day last year from the family cafe near the town of Silves in the Algarve.

Three days ago her parents Abel, 40, and Lina, 28, contacted police again after a Moroccan man threatened to take their daughter during a row at the cafe. Police are investigating these incidents, but are not linking them to Madeleine's disappearance.