British police reviewing the disappearance of Madeleine McCann said yesterday they believe she could still be alive five years after she went missing in Portugal and urged authorities there to reopen their search.

The Scotland Yard team sifting through a wealth of material relating to the youngster, who vanished in 2007, said they had identified 195 “investigative opportunities” that could be followed up. They also urged the Portuguese judiciary to allow the case to be reopened, saying Portuguese police also wanted to restart the search.

Scotland Yard renewed their appeal for information as they released a computer-generated image, created by experts, of how Madeleine might look now approaching what would be her ninth birthday on May 12.

Madeleine, who was almost four at the time, disappeared from the family’s holiday flat in Praia da Luz on the Portuguese south coast on May 3, 2007 while her parents were at dinner.

“We genuinely believe there is a possibility that she is alive,” said Detective Chief Inspector Andy Redwood from Scotland Yard’s Homicide and Serious Crime Command, who is leading the investigative review.

He said the review, launched last year, was a quarter of the way through its work.

His 37-strong team has at least 40,000 pieces of evidence to go through, containing around 100,000 pages – some needing time-consuming translation.

“We believe that is the only way that we can properly establish what has happened to Madeleine,” Mr Redwood said.