210,000 people reported missing in UK since Madeleine McCann abduction

In the 12 months since Madeleine McCann disappeared an estimated 210,000 people will have been reported missing to police in the UK.

Of these some 140,000 will have been under the age of 18, according to the charity Missing People.

There are simple explanations for most of these cases and the vast majority of people are found within 72 hours of disappearing.

But a small number never turn up, leaving their families and friends in an agony of waiting without knowing what has happened to their loved-one.

High-profile missing children get massive publicity - Milly Dowler, Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman have tragically become household names.

But Missing People says these can give a false impression of the reality behind most cases.

Kidnapping by a stranger is every parent's worst nightmare, but it is also extremely unusual.

More common scenarios are a parent abducting a child or a vulnerable youngster in care running away.

A spokesman for the charity said: "(Media coverage) just reinforces the stereotype of a child going missing where it's thought to be a stranger abduction, which is the scariest scenario but also very, very rare."

Missing People currently has about 6,000 open cases, ranging from suspected kidnappings to relatives who have lost contact with a family member.

It actively publicises the search for 335 missing people on its website, of whom 112 were under 18 when they disappeared.

But its files include only three young British children who vanished without trace abroad.

These are: Ben Needham, who went missing from the Greek island of Kos in July 1991 aged 21 months; Katrice Lee, who disappeared from a military base shopping centre in Germany in November 1981 aged two; and Madeleine McCann who was taken from her holiday apartment in Portugal aged three.

In 2006-07 Missing People received nearly 22,000 inquiries about missing people and opened over 1,600 missing people family support cases.