The new suspect in the Madeleine McCann case is being investigated over the disappearance of a five-year-old girl in Germany.
The 43-year-old German national is a convicted child sex offender currently in prison in his home country.
German prosecutors have said they believe Madeleine is dead after she vanished from an apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal, on 3 May 2007, while on holiday with her family, and are investigating the suspect for her murder.
A preliminary investigation has also been opened into whether the suspect is linked to the 2015 disappearance of a five-year-old girl in Germany, prosecutors in the northern town of Stendal told the dpa news agency.
Inga Gehricke vanished from a nearby forest in Saxony-Anhalt on 2 May 2015.
The suspect reportedly had a property in the town of Neuwegersleben, around 95km southwest of Stendal when she went missing.
Meanwhile, British police have received hundreds of contacts from the public following the launch of a new appeal for information on Madeleine's disappearance.
Detective Chief Inspector Mark Cranwell, who is leading the Metropolitan Police's Operation Grange investigation into the case, said more than 270 calls and emails had been received by 4pm yesterday.
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German man identified as suspect in Madeleine McCann case
German prosecutors believe Madeleine McCann is dead
It followed British, German and Portuguese authorities launching an appeal for information on Wednesday night relating to the suspect.
He is known to have lived on the Algarve coast and his Portuguese mobile phone received a half-hour phone call in Praia da Luz around an hour before Madeleine, then aged three, went missing.
Scotland Yard said he was believed to have been living in a distinctive early 1980s VW T3 Westfalia camper van at the time and re-registered a 1993 Jaguar XJR6 in someone else's name the day after her disappearance.
Operation Grange still considers the case a missing person inquiry because there is no "definitive evidence whether Madeleine is alive or dead".
Christian Hoppe, from Germany's Federal Criminal Police Office, has said that German police have not ruled out a sexual motive for the alleged crime against Madeleine.
He said that the suspect may have broken into an apartment in the Ocean Club complex, where Madeleine was on holiday with her parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, and her twin siblings, before kidnapping her.
German prosecutors said the suspect was living in the Algarve between 1995 and 2007, where he funded his lifestyle by committing crimes.
A £20,000 reward is available for information leading to the conviction of the person responsible for Madeleine's disappearance.
The Metropolitan Police's investigation was tipped off about the German national, already known to detectives, following a 2017 appeal 10 years after she went missing.
Madeleine disappeared shortly before her fourth birthday, while her parents were eating dinner with friends at a nearby tapas restaurant.
Kate and Gerry McCann, from Rothley, in Leicestershire, have welcomed the appeal, saying: "We will never give up hope of finding Madeleine alive."
