Madeleine McCann: Met Police say letter from German prosecutors did not contain evidence she is dead

Force continues to investigate disappearance ‘as a missing person investigation’

File photo of Madeleine McCann, who went missing from her family's holiday apartment in Portugal in May 2007. (AP)

The Metropolitan Police says it received only one letter from German prosecutors investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann and it did not contain evidence or proof she is dead.

Media reports said correspondence was sent to the couple stating German police have "concrete evidence" Madeline is dead.

The prosecutor at the head of the German investigation, Hans Christian Wolters, told Italian newspaper La Repubblica that a follow-up letter had been sent.

However, the Met Police on Friday released a clarification stating: "The Met received one letter from the Bundeskriminalamt (BKA) on 12 June, which was passed to the family.

"The letter did not state that there was evidence or proof that Madeleine is dead — the Met continue to investigate Madeleine’s disappearance as a missing person investigation.

"No letter has been received by the Met" from Wolters, it added.

It comes after Kate and Gerry McCann said the claims their daughter was dead had caused "unnecessary anxiety to friends and family and once again disrupted our lives".

Their statement read: "Since the recent police appeals regarding Madeleine's disappearance there have been many inaccurate stories reported in the media.

"The widely reported news that we have a received a letter from the German authorities that states there is evidence or proof that Madeleine is dead is false.

"Like many unsubstantiated stories in the media, this has caused unnecessary anxiety to friends and family and once again disrupted our lives.

"As we have stated many times before, we will not give a running commentary on the investigation - that is the job of the law enforcement agencies and we will support them in any way requested."

Mr Wolters has said prosecutors have "concrete evidence", but not "forensic evidence", that Madeleine was killed by the suspect and may "know more" than Scotland Yard, who are still treating the case as a missing person investigation.

German investigators believe Christian Brueckner, 43, killed Madeline soon after abducting her from a holiday apartment in the Praia da Luz resort in Portugal in May 2007.

Brueckner is in jail in Germany for drug dealing, and is appealing against a conviction for the 2005 rape of a 72-year-old woman, also at Praia da Luz.

He has not yet spoken to investigators, who say they are convinced that he has committed other sex attacks.

Brueckner is a suspect in a string of unsolved crimes, reportedly including an attack on a 10-year-old British girl in Praia da Luz in 2005, one of a series of such incidents where young girls were targeted.

Additional reporting by Press Association