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LAST UPDATE | 3 Jun 2025
THE LATEST SEARCHES for Madeleine McCann are getting under way in Portugal with officers gathering in countryside a few miles from the resort where she was last seen in 2007.
Madeleine, then aged three, disappeared while on holiday with her family in the resort of Praia da Luz after her parents went out to dinner and left her sleeping in a room with her toddler twin siblings.
Police vehicles were seen around 5.5 kilometres from the resort today, in the Atalaia area, where the Sun newspaper has reported search teams are expected to use radar equipment that can scan beneath the ground.
The BBC said four vans carrying German officers were seen driving down a road leading to the sea, along with Portuguese police and a fire engine.
Journalists were being kept a distance away from the search site amid intense international media scrutiny of the operation.
TV footage showed two Portuguese police officers guarding the end to a narrow lane that leads through an area of fields and scrubland with a few houses and a vineyard.
It has been variously reported that investigators will look where trenches were dug near the resort at the time of Madeleine’s disappearance, at wells, ruins and water tanks, and that there are plans to examine 21 pieces of land.
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.
He is due to be released from jail in September if no further charges are brought.
Ulrich Oppold, a journalist from German broadcaster RTL, visited Brueckner in prison in Germany, who said if he gets out of jail the thing he is most looking forward to is a steak with a beer.
Brueckner refused to answer any questions relating to Madeleine after discussions with his lawyers.
He told the journalist that if he does get out of jail he will have to lie low as he is so well known. Brueckner described himself as “bekannt wie ein bunter Hund” – which literally translated is “as well-known as a colourful dog”.
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.
Around 30 German police officers, including forensic experts, are expected to take part in the search along with Portuguese officers, with the activity due to last until Friday.
The Metropolitan Police said it is aware of the operation but that British officers will not be present.
German investigators and Portuguese officers last carried out searches in the country 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.
British police were later given permission to examine scrubland near where she vanished in 2014.
Last month, Madeleine’s family, who are from Rothley in Leicestershire, marked the 18th anniversary of her disappearance, describing her as “beautiful and unique” before her 22nd birthday, and expressing their determination to keep searching.
A statement from her parents Kate and Gerry McCann and the family said: “The years appear to be passing even more quickly and whilst we have no significant news to share, our determination to ‘leave no stone unturned’ is unwavering. We will do our utmost to achieve this.”
In April, ministers approved more than £100,000 (€180,000) in additional funding for Scotland Yard detectives investigating Madeleine’s disappearance.
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