German and Portuguese police have been investigating abandoned properties near where Madeleine went missing 18 years ago.
Madeleine McCann went missing in 2007 while on holiday in Portugal (Image: GETTY)
Teams investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann 18 years ago have taken samples of potential evidence from properties near Praia Da Luz in Portugal. Emergency services, including police from Portugal and Germany as well as firefighters, were looking into abandoned property near the area where Madeleine went missing.
The teams were seen using pickaxes, shovels and chainsaws to clear dense vegetation and dig near a derelict building. Firefighters pumped water out of a well.
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John Varga
Madeleine McCann Praia da Luz search takes sinister turn
The prime suspect in Madeleine McCann’s disappearance stayed in a “wild camping” ground on land now being searched for clues by police where a mysterious white tent was erected in the days after her disappearance, it has been claimed.
Searchers are focusing on at least five derelict farmhouses and barns where Christian Brueckner camped at the time Madeleine went missing.
John Varga
Search activity has ‘clearly moved’
An eyewitness has told Dan Whitehead from Sky News that the polcir have changed to focus of their search.
“The focus yesterday for police was on disused farm buildings, close to where the prime suspect Christian B lived,” he siad.
“It’s clear that the activity has moved elsewhere at the moment.”
John Varga
Latest photos from search site
Photos show searchers using ground penetrating radar at an abandoned property just a few miles from Praia da Luz, where Madeleine McCann was last seen alive.
Searchers use ground penetrating radar to hunt for clues (Image: James Manning/PA Wire)
The hunt for clues goes on (Image: James Manning/PA Wire)
John Varga
Portuguese police blunt verdict on new Madeleine McCann search
Portuguese police have delivered a blunt verdict on the renewed search for Madeleine McCann. An anonymous Portuguese police source said at the start of the latest operation that they have “low expectations” about the searches but have been given their “orders” and are “not going to stand in the way”.
They told The Sun: “The information that’s being put out in the public arena is that they’ll last five days with the preparation work and clean-up afterwards and we’ve been told to expect three days of full work on the ground. But on the Portuguese side at least there’s wishful thinking this could all be done in one day. We would love to be proved wrong and see a significant discovery because it’s what we’ve all been working towards for so many years.”
READ MORE HERE
John Varga
What we know about Christian B
The German suspect is currently serving a seven-year jail term Germany for raping an elderly woman in 2005.
The crime took place in the same resort from which Madeleine disappeared two years later.
He is due for release this September. He denies any involvement in the McCann case.
The German moved to Portugal in 1995 after serving a two-year prison sentence in Germany for sexually assaulting a six-year-old girl in 1994.
He is known to have lived in a cottage n Praia da Luz.
He is alleged to have confessed on two occasions to kidnapping and sexually abusing the toddler – once to a friend in a German bar in 2017 and again to his prison cellmate in 2020.
There was no suggestion in either alleged confession that he killed her, and he continues to deny any involvement.
Christian B in court (Image: Getty)
John Varga
Search teams start clearing more areas
Search teams have begun clearing the surrounding areas of more abandoned structures, Sky News reports.
Hedge trimmers are being used by officers around more run-down buildings in the same scrubland area on the outskirts of Lagos.
Alycia McNamara
Madeleine’s parents are not commenting on new search
Kate and Gerry McCann won’t be commenting while the current search which is underway.
The couple won’t make public comments during the “active police investigation”, staff at the Find Madeleine Campaign said.
Kate and Gerry McCann in 2012 with an artist’s impression of what Madeleine could have looked like (Image: Getty Images)
Alycia McNamara
Latest images show digger at search site
Images show a yellow digger at the search site.
It was being used to shift rubble from inside one abandoned structure deep inside the police cordon as searches continue a few miles from where Madeleine vanished, reports The Independent.
A digger is now being used for the search (Image: Andy Commins Daily Mirror)
Alycia McNamara
Search could be the ‘largest’ since 2008
The scale of this week’s searches could be the most extensive since the initial investigation into Madeleine’s disappearance was closed in 2008 – a year after the toddler vanished in Praia da Luz, reports The Mirror.
It will focus on wells, ruins, and water storage tanks on 21 plots of privately-owned land.
Alycia McNamara
Digger employed in search
Authorities have now employed a digger in the search, according to reports.
The excavator was seen pulling back earth as the number of people on site has grown today, on the second day of the search.
Alycia McNamara
Inside abandoned property being searched
This is what it looks like inside one of the derelict properties which has been searched by teams in the countryside a few miles from the resort where Madeleine was last seen, reports The Mirror.
The property is being searched by authorities (Image: PA MEDIA)
Alycia McNamara
Drone deployed in search
Two police officers are standing next to one of the derelict farm houses and flying a drone over the abandoned property.
It is the first time a police drone has been seen being used in the ongoing search operation, reports The Mirror.
Alycia McNamara
Where is the area being searched?
The area is in the middle of a tourist region, it is a few hundred metres north is a golf club and resort, while in the opposite direction are some steep cliffs leading to the sea.
Along the cliffs, is a hiking trail along the cliffs known as Trilho dos Pescadores, or the Fisherman’s trail, reports BBC News.
Alycia McNamara
New photos show authorities in building
New images show authorities searching the abandoned building linked to the Madeleine McCann search.
Today is the second day of the search which began yesterday and will run until June 6.
Authorities are currently searching in Portugal (Image: Andy Commins Daily Mirror)
Multiple people can be seen inside an abandoned building (Image: Andy Commins Daily Mirror)