BREAKING NEWS Madeleine McCann detectives begin fresh search for the missing girl where she was last seen
Fresh police searches are due to start tomorrow near the spot where Madeleine McCann was last seen.
German police are said to have requested the searches, expected to take place between Praia da Luz where the three-year-old vanished on May 3 2007 and a house near the holiday resort where principal suspect Christian Brueckner used to live.
A well-placed Portuguese source confirmed this week's operation was scheduled get underway tomorrow but said some preparation work may take place beforehand.
He said: 'They will be land searches only. The main objective is to look for any signs of Madeleine's body.'
Portuguese police are understood to have agreed to cooperate with the search after it was approved by the country's judicial authorities following a formal request from German cops and prosecutors.
The search is expected to last around three days unless anything relevant emerges.
It will be the first search in Portugal for more than two years, following a near-week-long operation involving Portuguese, German and police officers at a remote dam a 40-minute-drive from Praia da Luz.
The searches in May 2023 at Arade Dam, described at the time as Brueckner's 'little paradise', came to nothing.
They were the first major searches in Portugal for Madeleine McCann in nine years following an earlier June 2014 operation when British police were given permission to carry out digs in Praia da Luz that involved sniffer dogs trained in detecting bodies and ground-penetrating radar.
Those digs were linked to the leading UK police theory at the time Madeleine died during a break-in and burglars hid her body nearby.
They also failed to produce any evidence pointing to the missing youngster's whereabouts.
In a smaller operation in July 2020 Portuguese police and firefighters searched three wells for Madeleine's body but failed to find any trace of her.
Prime suspect Christian Brueckner remains in prison in Germany where he is serving a seven year term for rape.
The 48-year-old convicted paedophile faces having his hopes of being released from jail in September scuppered after reportedly being accused of new offences against prison guards behind bars.
He is under investigation on suspicion of abduction and murder in the McCann case but has denied any involvement in the girl's 2007 disappearance.
While German investigators made the unusual move of naming the convicted paedophile as a suspect in the case, he has not been charged.
Brueckner's prison term is set to end with his release this September - much earlier than prosecutors had hoped for after he was acquitted of unrelated sexual offences in court last October following a trial.
The convicted rapist is no longer being held in solitary confinement as he nears the end of his sentence.
With Brueckner's release looming, pressure is mounting on prosecutors to charge him following explosive revelations in a Channel 4 documentary and evidence found in a former factory, which authorities believe may link him to Maddie's abduction.
The materials, unearthed at a disused box factory in Germany, include a vile catalogue of depraved documents, children's clothing, small bikes, and more than 75 swimsuits and toys believed to belong to young girls.
Some were reportedly buried beneath the body of Brueckner's dead dog, which was exhumed during the police search.
'The clock is against the case here and investigators do not want to see Brueckner walk free,' a source told The Sun.
'Their best option could be intervention from UK cops but they have to be prepared to take it on. There are 20,000 pages of Madeleine evidence and the Germans are ready to translate the lot.'
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