Vast police search for Madeleine McCann evidence launched in Algarve
Three-year-old British girl vanished while on family holiday in Portugal in 2007
Searches follow orders from Braunschweig prosecutor's office in Germany
Christian Brueckner, jailed in Germany for rape, identified as suspect, denies involvement
The scale of the searches could be the most extensive since the initial investigation was closed in 2008, a year after Madeleine went missing while on holiday with her family in the Algarve town of Praia da Luz.
Her disappearance sparked a frenzied search and gained the attention of the world's media. She has never been found.
Fresh though relatively focused searches were ordered by Portuguese, British and German police of scrubland, wells and reservoirs in 2014, 2020 and 2023. None of these searches were confirmed to have yielded significant evidence.
Portugal's investigative Judicial Police (PJ) had said on Monday they would execute search warrants at the behest of the public prosecutor's office in Germany's Braunschweig, which in 2022 formally identified German national Christian Brueckner as an official suspect in the case.
The search operation is expected to end on Thursday, a spokesperson for the public prosecutor's office in the northern German city of Braunschweig said.
A source involved in the search said the targeted area was 'vast' with police using ground-penetrating radar across several hectares. Portuguese officers were following instructions from German police under a European Investigation Order.
Reuters footage showed uniformed PJ officers in a cordon on a dirt road in Atalaia – a neighbourhood of Lagos municipality – waving through unmarked vans and cars with German license plates from the city of Wiesbaden, where the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) has its headquarters.
The BKA is assisting Portuguese law enforcement with 'criminal procedural measures', Braunschweig prosecutors told Reuters, declining to provide further details.
The occupants of one of the German vehicles wore bucket hats, clothing with camouflage patterns and bandanas covering their faces.
A van belonging to Portugal's Maritime Police also arrived. That force has jurisdiction over coastal areas and took part in previous searches of beaches, wells and reservoirs using specialist divers.
The road the police cordoned off is located close to a golf course and less than 1 km (0.6 miles) from the beach. The search area was close to a property that Brueckner lived in, a neighbour told Reuters in 2020, though when was unclear.
German police said in June 2020 that Madeleine was presumed dead and that Brueckner, in his 40s, was probably responsible. He has denied responsibility.
Brueckner, a convicted child abuser and drug dealer, is behind bars in Germany for raping a 72-year-old woman in the same area of the Algarve. His sentence runs until September, meaning he is set for release unless prosecutors find enough evidence to charge him over Madeleine's disappearance.
In January, Sky News quoted the German prosecutor investigating Madeleine's disappearance as saying there was currently no prospect of charges being brought against Brueckner.
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