Searches for Madeleine McCann resume in Portugal countryside
Searches for Madeleine McCann have resumed in Portugal with police using a digger to clear debris around an abandoned building a miles from where the British toddler was last seen in 2007.
On Wednesday, Portuguese and German authorities continued focusing on derelict structures in countryside a few miles from the resort of Praia da Luz.
The fresh searches for Madeleine began on Tuesday, 18 years after the three-year-old disappeared from Praia da Luz while her parents were out having dinner, leaving her sleeping in a nearby room with her toddler twin siblings.
The sounds of chainsaws and strimmers could be heard as investigators appeared to continue clearing areas of scrubland in Atalaia, on the outskirts of Praia da Luz.
Police used a JCB to clear rubble around one building and also appeared to have emptied another nearby disused structure of debris. Bricks and rocks could be seen piled outside the graffitied structure.
Personnel wore protective gear including as hard hats and face masks as they cleared vegetation around the structures.
Officers stopped journalists from getting close to the search areas, which were cordoned off with police tape.
The search is being carried out at the request of the German federal police, as they look for evidence that could implicate prime suspect Christian Brueckner, who is in prison for raping a 72-year-old woman in Praia da Luz in 2005.
Kate and Gerry McCann, Madeleine's parents, are not commenting during the 'active police investigation', staff at the Find Madeleine campaign said.
Brueckner is due to be released from jail in September if no further charges are brought.
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.
About 30 German police, including forensic experts, are expected to take part in the search, which is expected to last until Friday, along with Portuguese officers.
The Metropolitan Police said they were aware of the operation but that British officers will not be present.
German investigators and Portuguese officers last carried out searches in 2023, near the Barragem do Arade reservoir, about 30 miles from Praia da Luz.
Brueckner, who spent time in the area between 2000 and 2017, had photographs and videos of himself near the reservoir.
It was previously 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.
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British police were given permission to examine scrubland near where she vanished in 2014.
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