Well drained in search for Madeleine McCann
A well has been drained and vegetation cleared near abandoned buildings in the renewed search for missing British girl Madeleine McCann in Portugal.
The fresh search for Madeleine, who vanished 18 years ago, began on Tuesday (local time) in countryside a few kilometres from the southern Portuguese resort town of Praia da Luz.
Three-year-old Madeleine went missing while on holiday with her family in the Algarve resort on May 3, 2007, after her parents went out to dinner and left her sleeping in a room with her toddler twin siblings.
German investigators and Portuguese police officers and firefighters are involved in the renewed searches. They used line trimmers, shovels and chainsaws to clear the undergrowth and debris around an abandoned building, and drained a well using a yellow hose.
About a dozen officers focused on one abandoned building where there was extensive digging. Another member of the search team cleared large rocks.
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Madeleine McCann disappeared while on holiday with her family in southern Portugal in 2007.
Britain’s Sun newspaper reported investigators were also going to use radar equipment to scan beneath the ground.
It has been reported that teams will look where trenches were dug near the resort at the time of Madeleine’s disappearance, at wells, ruins and water tanks, and that there are plans to examine 21 pieces of land.
The search is being carried out at the request of the German federal police, who are seeking evidence that could implicate prime suspect Christian Brueckner.
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Brueckner is in prison for raping a 72-year-old woman in Praia da Luz in 2005. He will be released from jail in September if no further charges are brought.
Last October, a German court cleared Brueckner of unrelated sexual offences, alleged to have taken place in Portugal between 2000 and 2017.
About 30 German police, including forensic experts, are expected to take part in the search for Madeleine, with Portuguese officers. It is expected to last until Friday.
The Metropolitan Police said British officers were not involved.
German investigators and Portuguese officers last carried out searches in 2023, near the Barragem do Arade reservoir, about 50 kilometres from Praia da Luz.
Brueckner, who spent time in the area between 2000 and 2017, had photographs and videos of himself near the reservoir.
It was previously searched in 2008, when Portuguese lawyer Marcos Aragao Correia paid for specialist divers to search it. He had claimed to have been tipped off by criminal contacts that Madeleine’s body was there.
British police were later permitted to examine scrubland near where she vanished in 2014.
Last month Madeleine’s parents, Kate and Gerry McCann marked the 18th anniversary of her disappearance, describing her as “beautiful and unique”, before what would have been her 22nd birthday. They vowed to continue the search.
“The years appear to be passing even more quickly and whilst we have no significant news to share, our determination to ‘leave no stone unturned’ is unwavering. We will do our utmost to achieve this,” they said.
