German police investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann are launching a major new search in Portugal.
Madeleine disappeared in 2007 while on holiday with her family in the resort of Praia da Luz. She vanished from a bedroom in a holiday apartment complex while her parents were out for dinner with friends a short walk away.
The subsequent search for the missing girl became one of the highest-profile unsolved missing person cases in the world.
On Monday, Portuguese police said that searches will be carried out this week in the municipality of Lagos, following a request from German authorities.
In a statement, the country’s investigative Judicial Police said it was executing a European Investigation Order on behalf of the public prosecutor's office in the German city of Braunschweig, which in 2022 formally identified German national Christian Brueckner as an official suspect in Madeleine's disappearance.
The search for traces of the child's body will focus on an area between Praia da Luz, a civil parish belonging to Lagos, and one of the houses where Brueckner lived when Madeleine disappeared 18 years ago, according to news reports by CNN Portugal and German newspaper Bild.
Brueckner, who is currently serving a seven-year prison sentence in Germany for the rape of an elderly woman at her home in Praia da Luz in 2005, has denied any involvement in Madeleine’s disappearance.
Police last carried out searches in the country in 2023 near the Barragem do Arade reservoir, about 30 miles from Praia da Luz - but found no evidence.
The reservoir had previously been searched in 2008, when Portuguese lawyer Marcos Aragao Correia paid for specialist divers to search it after he claimed to have been tipped off by criminal contacts that Madeleine’s body was there.
Later, in 2014, British police were given permission to examine scrubland near where she vanished.
On Monday, The Sun reported that searches are to be carried out this week, near where she was last seen.
A spokeswoman for the Metropolitan Police said: “We are aware of the searches being carried by the BKA (German federal police) in Portugal as part of their investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.
“The Metropolitan Police Service is not present at the search, we will support our international colleagues where necessary.”
Last month Madeleine’s family marked the 18th anniversary of her disappearance, describing her as “beautiful and unique” before her 22nd birthday, and expressing their determination to keep searching.
A statement from her parents Kate and Gerry McCann and the family said: “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.”
In April, ministers approved more than £100,000 in additional funding for Scotland Yard detectives investigating Madeleine’s disappearance.
