Police have recently unveiled a revamped nationwide alert system aimed at enlisting the public to help rescue abducted children.  The new network, comparable to the amber alert system in the United States, will be compatible with other European countries for the first time and as a result a continent-wide alert could be issued in circumstances where youngsters may be taken across national borders.

Kate and Gerry McCann have campaigned for such a system to be introduced since their daughter Madeleine disappeared in Portugal in May 2007. Kate McCann joined  other relatives of missing children to mark the launch in central London on the 25^th May -  International Missing Children's Day (IMCD).

Chief Constable Peter Neyroud, head of the National Police Improvement Agency (NPIA), said the actions of police immediately after a disappearance are "vital".

He said: "Through Child Rescue Alert the community is able to form a strong alliance to help in the hunt for child abductors when an alert is activated. It is fitting that the NPIA should relaunch the alert on International Missing Children's Day, which forms a poignant reminder of the sense of devastation caused to the parents and families of children who go missing."

Although some 100,000 children are reported missing to police each year, senior officers expect the national alert to be used extremely rarely.  The upgraded child rescue alert system will use new computer software to handle a deluge of calls from members of the public. Regional and national television and radio stations will broadcast messages, in some cases interrupting scheduled programmes. Organisers hope to eventually use internet and text messaging as well as motorway information signs.

The system is being co-ordinated by the NPIA and any national abduction alert will be led by Greater Manchester Police.