Madeleine McCann update as officers embrace after concluding £300,000 search

Wales Online

2 days ago

Madeleine McCann update as officers embrace after concluding £300,000 search
It is now 18 years since the three-year-old's disappearance and police have been carrying out a number of searches this week
Members of the search teams shake hands at the end of the day of searching at one of the base camps close to Praia De Luz, Portugal
(Image: PA )
German and Portuguese police and firefighters have spent three days scouring scrubland and abandoned structures as part of a £300,000 operation into the disappearance of British toddler Madeleine McCann. Officers could be seen holding pitchforks as they combed the land in an area on the outskirts of Lagos in Portugal on Thursday.
Investigators congratulated and embraced each other as the latest searches connected to the disappearance of the three-year-old drew to a close. The latest operation comes after an investigation into a paedophile who lived close by at the time of the young girl's disappearance 18-years-ago.
Teams of detectives have taken samples of potential evidence from properties near Praia Da Luz in Portugal.
Others were looking into abandoned property near the area where Madeleine went missing.
Search teams wound down the operation in Atalaia, near Lagos, Portugal, on Thursday, after three days of scouring scrubland and abandoned structures.
Their efforts focused on a 120-acre stretch of land, using equipment such as chainsaws, diggers and a ground-penetrating radar.
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The Metropolitan Police confirmed that British officers had not been present at the latest searches.
Madeleine McCann
(Image: PA )
The operation has now ended, and the Mirror reports how officers were seen carrying away boxes of soil, a children's car seat and white bags filled with unknown contents.
Police have launched multiple searches for Madeleine McCann since her disappearance in Portugal in 2007.
Early efforts focused on the Praia da Luz resort, where she was last seen in her family's holiday apartment.
The McCann family were on holiday at the Ocean Club in Praia da Luz, Portugal, when the youngster went missing.
Madeleine's parents and their friends had dinner at a restaurant in the complex while the children slept in the apartment, 100 yards away.
Officers involved in the latest searches held a debrief before leaving the site, and there was a round of applause before a crate of German beer was removed from one of the tents in the designated base area.
After the Augustiner beers were carried away, some officers struggled to grapple with the tents they were taking down because of the blustery conditions.
Earlier in the day, personnel could be seen holding pitchforks as they combed stretches of land.
Pick-axes and shovels were used to dig some of the undergrowth and a digger was again used to remove rubble from one of the abandoned structures at the site.
They spent the first two days of the search focusing on one particular derelict building, using ground-penetrating radar on the cobbled ground after clearing the area of debris and vegetation using a digger and chainsaws.
Madeleine's parents have not commented during the "active police investigation", staff at the Find Madeleine Campaign said.
German authorities requested the search as part of their continued attempts to source evidence to implicate prime suspect Christian Brueckner, 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.
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In October last year, Brueckner was cleared by a German court of unrelated sexual offences, alleged to have taken place in Portugal between 2000 and 2017.
In 2023, investigators carried out searches near the Barragem do Arade reservoir, about 30 miles from Praia da Luz. Brueckner spent time in the area between 2000 and 2017 and had photographs and videos of himself near the reservoir.