A German woman who was investigated by police probing a hit-and-run theory about Madeleine McCann's disappearance has spoken out about her ordeal.

The three-year-old British girl vanished while sleeping in a holiday apartment in the Praia da Luz area of the Algarve coast in Portugal, on May 3, 2007.

Her case became one of the most high profile missing persons investigations ever, with searches into her whereabouts still ongoing.

One Portuguese and British police theory is Madeleine woke up, got out of the apartment through an unlocked patio door and was killed in a hit-and-run collision.

Officers investigated a German woman in relation to this seven years ago, when they were focused on this line of inquiry.