A new search for Madeleine McCann is under way in Portugal with police officers gathering a few miles from where the British toddler was last seen in 2007.
Portuguese and German police are carrying out the search 18 years after the three-year-old disappeared from the resort of Praia da Luz while her parents were having dinner out, leaving her sleeping in a nearby room with her toddler twin siblings.
Police vehicles were seen about 3.5 miles (5.5km) from the resort on Tuesday, in the Atalaia area, where the Sun newspaper reported that search teams were expected to use radar equipment that could scan beneath the ground.
Search teams were seen draining a well and clearing areas of dense vegetation near abandoned buildings. German investigators along with Portuguese police officers and firefighters were working in a little-developed area of countryside a few miles from Praia da Luz
Journalists were being kept a distance away from the search sites amid intense international media scrutiny of the operation. A no-fly zone was imposed that stopped the used of drones, although some activity could be seen as teams used Strimmers, pick-axes, shovels and chainsaws to clear the undergrowth and debris surrounding an abandoned building.
TV footage showed two Portuguese police officers guarding the end to a narrow lane that leads through an area of fields and scrubland with a few houses and a vineyard.
The search is being carried out at the request of the German federal police as they look for evidence that could implicate the prime suspect, Christian Brückner, who is in prison for raping a 72-year-old woman in Praia da Luz in 2005. He is due to be released from jail in September if no further charges are brought.
Investigators will reportedly look where trenches were dug near the resort at the time of Madeleine’s disappearance, at wells, ruins and water tanks. There are plans to examine 21 pieces of land.
Brückner was cleared by a German court in October last year of unrelated sexual offences alleged to have taken place in Portugal between 2000 and 2017.
About 30 German police officers, including forensic experts, are expected to take part in the search along with Portuguese officers, with the activity due to last until Friday. The Metropolitan police, while aware of the operation, will not be present.
German investigators and Portuguese officers last carried out searches in the country in 2023, near the Barragem do Arade reservoir, about 30 miles from Praia da Luz.
Brückner, who spent time in the area between 2000 and 2017, had photographs and videos of himself near the reservoir.
Ulrich Oppold, a journalist from German broadcaster RTL, visited Brückner in prison in Germany. Brückner told him that if he got out of jail the thing he was most looking forward to was a steak with a beer. However, he refused to answer any questions relating to Madeleine after discussions with his lawyers.
Brückner told the journalist that if he did get out of jail he would have to lie low as he was so well known, describing himself as “bekannt wie ein bunter Hund” – which literally translated is “as well known as a colourful dog”.
The Barragem do Arade reservoir was 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.
British police were later given permission to examine scrubland near where she vanished in 2014.
Last month, Madeleine’s family, from Rothley in Leicestershire, 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, UK ministers approved more than £100,000 in additional funding for Scotland Yard detectives investigating Madeleine’s disappearance.
