Kate and Gerry McCann, the parents of missing four-year-old Madeleine McCann, said they were "delighted" that Shannon had been found alive and said the news gave them hope.
Their spokesman, Clarence Mitchell, said: "Kate and Gerry are aware that she has been found alive. They feel that is excellent news, they are delighted that she is alive.
"They will not comment more until they know the full circumstances. Suffice to say that they will keep on looking until they have a happy resolution in Madeleine's case.
"It proves that children can go missing for whatever reason and still be found alive.
"Until Kate and Gerry know what has happened to Madeleine, there will always be hope for them that she too will be found alive.
"They will keep on looking as long as there is hope."
Conservative leader David Cameron said he was "delighted" to hear that Shannon had been found alive.
Speaking to reporters at his party's spring forum in Gateshead, Mr Cameron said: "I just feel huge relief on behalf of Shannon and her family.
"It is wonderful news that she's been found alive and, I hope, well.
"So often in these cases, you wait and you wait and then you hear tragic and awful news. All of us were thinking that was maybe what might happen and it is great that she is alive."
Shannon has been made the subject of an "Emergency Police Protection Order".
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Shannon's dysfunctional family: A stepfather accused of violence and a mother at war with her parents
By HELEN WEATHERS - More by this author »
Last updated at 00:38am on 15th March 2008
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Yesterday, the "Welcome Back" banners replaced the ones which, for more than three weeks, have carried the desperate plea: "Find Shannon."
But with the revelation that 39-year-old Paul Drake, arrested on suspicion of abduction, is the uncle of Shannon's stepfather, Craig Meehan, will it be the happy ending everyone desperately wants?
The connection to Craig will no doubt further sour relations within a family which has completely fractured since Shannon's disappearance.
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Facing the worst: Shannon Matthew's father Leon Rose, her mother Karen and step-father Craig Meehan
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Why did the police take 24 days to find Shannon just a mile from home?
Revealed: The 'scruffy misfit' who lost his own two children
Indeed, Shannon's grandparents - June and Gordon Matthews - blame their daughter Karen, 32, and her partner, supermarket fishmonger Craig Meehan, 22, for the nine-year-old's terrifying ordeal.
They have disowned Karen - who has seven children by five fathers - and have questioned her parenting credentials. Additionally, they have made sensational allegations that Shannon was so frightened of Craig, who she claimed hit her, that she ran away.
Indeed, the complicated, unconventional and many would say utterly dysfunctional family life of Shannon Matthews is almost more complex than the massive police inquiry.
It even reached the point where family members were asked by police not to say anything further about each other because it might hamper an already difficult investigation.
Afraid: Some of Shannon's family believe she was scared of her stepfather
This week, Craig Meehan issued fierce denials that he'd hit Shannon, after the girl's 64-yearold grandmother claimed: "We have never seen him beat Shannon with our own eyes, but the kids have said it's happened.
"Me and Gordon went up there on a Sunday before Christmas to give Karen some money for gas.
"Karen wasn't in, but Craig was. One of the children was on the stairs, holding their stomach and crying. I asked what had happened and the child said: 'Craig, punch, punch, punch.'
"I told Karen these kids have an awful life, but she just accuses me of interfering. Another of the children also said Craig had hit them.
"Shannon was frightened of him, too. I've been round before when Shannon was at the top of the stairs, shivering. She had been sent upstairs with no dinner.
"When I asked Karen what was going on, she told me Craig was punishing her."
Mrs Matthews also claimed that on the day Shannon went missing Karen turned up at their house with a black eye.
"She said she'd had an argument with Craig. It was clear she was upset. She told me she'd had a fall, but I knew there was more to it. She'd been rowing with Craig that morning.
"Karen was a great mum before she took Craig in. Since he arrived, they've had a terrible life, but Karen accuses me of interfering. Shannon was too scared to go home that night."
Shannon's uncle Martin Matthews, 42, further claimed that on the night before she disappeared, Shannon pleaded to stay with him because she was too frightened to go home, because she'd sworn at Craig during an argument and been grounded.
Martin said: "She's been round here on many occasions saying the same thing: crying, saying she doesn't want to go home, saying: 'I hate living there.'
"She's showed me bruises on her arms and said Craig had lashed out at her. He does lash out.
"I told her she really shouldn't stay and she should go home, especially if she was grounded, and asked Tyler, my ten-year-old daughter, to walk her home. When Tyler got back, she said Shannon had cried all the way."
"My two kids saw Shannon the next morning. They told me she'd had an argument with her mum and that Karen had screamed at her to get out of the house and not come back."
Martin said he bitterly regretted sending Shannon home.
This week, the Mail went back to Shannon's grandfather Gordon Matthews, who said he and his wife stood by everything they'd said earlier.
He added: "As far as me and my wife are concerned, we never want to see any of them again. Craig is bad news and he's never done our family any good.
"I now consider them to be completely disowned and I want nothing more to do with them.
"If my daughter is going to turn a blind eye to what he is like, then that goes for her, too."
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Dysfunctional family? Karen Matthews pictured with Craig Meehan, and sons Tony and Cameron Matthews
Craig Meehan has vehemently denied the accusations against him.
"I've been with Karen for four years. I have never hit her or any of the children. I love those kids. June is lying because she doesn't like me. No one in Shannon's family likes me. I don't know why."
Karen, too, has branded the allegations as "rubbish", saying that Shannon loved her stepfather, cuddling up to him as they watched TV together and enjoying tickle fights.
"The family don't feel safe any more," she said. "It has broken my family apart. It makes me think I can't trust the people who are really close to me any more.
"Her brother's crying. Her sister's crying. Half the time I cry myself to sleep. Her step-dad Craig cries himself to sleep."
There are many in the community who have been horrified at the accusations and finger-pointing, leaping to Karen and Craig's defence and comforting them when they feared the worst.
Karen's cousin Susan Howgate, 39, told me: "I have known Craig for six or seven years and he is the kindest, gentlest person. He loves kids and he would never, ever hurt anyone.
"Karen is a brilliant mum and loves her children 100 per cent.
"Shannon is a very shy, quiet girl, but she wasn't unhappy at home. She was just one of those kids who is quite happy with her own company. She liked to play on the computer, doing painting.
"I always used to tease her because she used to wear clothes in clashing colours."
Another close friend of Karen said Shannon adored her mother and had dedicated a school project on the subject "Thanks" to Karen.
She wrote: "I love my mum because she does nice things with me."
This community is the setting in which Karen Matthews, who has never married, grew up and while the word "feckless" has cropped up repeatedly in various media reports, she is undoubtedly popular with many residents in the close-knit neighbourhood, who believe she and Craig deserve public sympathy.
Karen was 20 when she gave birth to her eldest child Tony, now aged almost 12.
His father is unknown, and his grandparents claim the boy has run away from home at least four times because he doesn't get on with Craig.
When Tony was a baby, Karen started a relationship with Leon Rose, 29, the father of Shannon, nine, and her brother Ian, ten.
Karen and Leon split up when Shannon was less than two years old - and Leon now lives with a new partner ten miles away in Huddersfield.
When Shannon went missing, he stood side by side with Craig Meehan when the family marched through Dewsbury on the three-week anniversary of her disappearance.
Leaping to Craig's defence, he said his daughter never once complained about her stepfather when he saw her at weekends - describing him as a "decent bloke".
However, Shannon's true feelings may have been summed up by the scribble police found on her bedroom wall - "I want to live with my dad" - a sentiment her mother Karen was quick to dismiss as the result of an insignificant argument.
Certainly, Shannon didn't see much of her father when she was young. Leon has admitted there were problems with the family from time to time which stopped him from seeing the daughter he loves, though he declined to elaborate.
After Karen and Leon split up, she started a relationship with Paul Hooker, father of her seven-year-old son Daniel. He lives with his father, just as Shannon's older brother Ian lives with Leon.
Again, that relationship lasted less than two years, and after Karen separated from Paul, she took up with a man named William Marshall.
In January 2002, Karen gave birth to their daughter Kelly, now six, who is also believed to live with her father.
Karen's youngest son, Cameron, five - the identity of his father remains a mystery - lives with Karen and her partner Craig, with whom Karen has yet another child, two-year-old Courtney.
It is a truly dizzying litany of successive pregnancies and failed relationships. Indeed, the four years she has spent with Craig Meehan - who is ten years her junior - represent her longest "partnership".
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If the pink plonker thinks he has grounds to sue the express he would do well to remember that his 2 darlings are the prime suspects in their daughters disappearance,this mother karen matthews may not have the same social advantages as the mc canns and may have different fathers for her kids(note ulrika jonnsson) But does this give the mail the right to tear her to shreds. I hope she sues the **** of them but she probably wont as she doesnt have the high flying legal expertise afforded to the mc canns. Thats my rant over...for now !!
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