Madeleine McCann disappearance: A timeline of key dates and developments
Nearly two decades after the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, Portuguese police are conducting fresh searches a few miles from the resort where she was last seen.
Police vehicles were seen around 3.5 miles from the resort on Tuesday, in the Atalaia area, where The Sun has reported search teams are expected to use radar equipment that can scan beneath the ground.
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.
He is in prison for raping a 72-year-old woman in Praia da Luz in 2005, but is due to be released from jail in September if no further charges are brought.
Madeleine was abducted from a holiday apartment where she had been staying with her parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, and younger siblings, Amelie and Sean.
Here is a breakdown of the main events after the three-year-old vanished.
May 3: Kate and Gerry McCann, from Rothley, Leicestershire, leave their children asleep in their holiday apartment in Praia da Luz in southern Portugal while they dine with friends at a nearby tapas restaurant.
Nothing is amiss when Mr McCann checks on the youngsters just after 9pm, but when his wife goes back at about 10pm she finds Madeleine missing.
Jane Tanner, one of the friends dining with the McCanns, reports having seen a man carrying a child earlier that night.
May 14: Detectives take Anglo-Portuguese property developer Robert Murat in for questioning and make him an 'arguido', or formal suspect – but this is later withdrawn.
August 11: Exactly 100 days after Madeleine disappeared, investigating officers publicly acknowledge for the first time that she could be dead.
September 7: During questioning of Mr and Mrs McCann, detectives make them both 'arguidos' in their daughter's disappearance – but this is also later withdrawn.
September 9: The McCanns fly back to England with their two-year-old twins Sean and Amelie.
July 21: The Portuguese authorities shelve their investigation and lift the 'arguido' status of the McCanns and Robert Murat.
May 12: Mrs McCann publishes a book about her daughter's disappearance, on Madeleine's eighth birthday.
Scotland Yard launches a review of the case after a request from home secretary Theresa May, supported by prime minister David Cameron.
April 25: Scotland Yard detectives say they believe Madeleine could still be alive, release an age-progression picture of how she might look as a nine-year-old, and call on the Portuguese authorities to reopen the case, but Portuguese police say they have found no new material.
July 4: Scotland Yard confirms it has launched its own investigation, Operation Grange, into Madeleine's disappearance two years into a review of the case. It has 'genuinely new' lines of inquiry and has identified 38 people of interest, including 12 Britons.
October 24: Portuguese police confirm that a review of their original investigation has uncovered new lines of inquiry, and they reopen the case.
January 29: British detectives fly to Portugal amid claims they are planning to make arrests.
June 3: Sniffer dogs and specialist teams are used to search an area of scrubland close to where Madeleine went missing.
December 12: Detectives begin questioning 11 people who it is thought may have information on the case.
September 16: The Government discloses that the investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine has cost more than £10m.
October 28: Scotland Yard cuts the number of officers working on the inquiry from 29 to four.
April 30: The McCanns prepare to mark ten years since their daughter's disappearance with a BBC interview in which they vow to do 'whatever it takes for as long as it takes' to find her.
May 3: Local media reports say Portuguese detectives are investigating a foreign paedophile as a suspect in the abduction of Madeleine.
June 3: Police reveal that a 43-year-old German prisoner, later named as Christian Brueckner, has been identified as a suspect in Madeleine's disappearance.
June 4: Scotland Yard's Operation Grange, which had received £12.3m in funding up to April 2020, is still a missing person inquiry as detectives have no 'definitive evidence whether Madeleine is alive or dead'.
May 4: Kate and Gerry McCann post a statement on the Official Find Madeleine Campaign website saying they still cling to the hope of seeing their daughter again as they prepare to mark her 18th birthday on May 12.
April 21: Christian Brueckner, now 44, is made an 'arguido', a formal suspect, by Portuguese authorities.
May 22: German investigators and Portuguese officers last carried out searches near the Barragem do Arade reservoir, about 30 miles from Praia da Luz.
June 1: After searches end, German prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters says a 'number of items were seized as part of the investigation', but that it cannot be said whether they 'have a connection to the Madeleine McCann case'.
October 8: Brueckner was cleared by a German court of unrelated sexual offences alleged to have taken place in Portugal between 2000 and 2017.
February 20: A Polish woman claiming to be Madeleine is arrested at Bristol Airport. Julia Wandelt is charged with stalking Gerry and Kate McCann, as well as their two children.
April 17: Ministers approve more than £100,000 in additional funding for Scotland Yard detectives investigating Madeleine's disappearance.
May 3: Madeleine's family has marked the 18th anniversary of her disappearance by remembering her as a 'very beautiful and unique person' ahead of what would have been her 22nd birthday.
June 3: Fresh searches under way at ruins over three miles from the resort Madeleine was last seen at the request of the German federal police.
Investigators to examine 21 pieces of land where trenches were dug near the resort at the time of her disappearance, at wells and water tanks.
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Madeleine McCann cops call off search as trawl of Brueckner's 'rat run' turns up nothing 'Was I or my vehicle clearly seen near the crime scene on the night of the crime? "Is there DNA evidence of me at the crime scene? Are there DNA traces of the injured party in my vehicle? 'Are there other traces/DNA carriers of the injured party in my possession? Photos? 'And, not to forget, is there a body/corpse? All no, no no.' He adds: 'You don't have to be a realist like me to predict that the accusations made against me will not hold up and that the investigation will be dropped.' Brueckner — named as a Madeleine suspect for five years — has also revealed in creepy letters a knowledge of how the German legal system works in his favour. He wrote: 'You know, of course, that in Germany you don't have to prove your innocence as a suspect, but that the public prosecutor's office has to prove that you are clearly guilty. 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