Police investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann begin fresh searches close to the former Algarve, Portugal home of the prime suspect. Photo / AFP
Police investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann begin fresh searches close to the former Algarve, Portugal home of the prime suspect. Photo / AFP
Detectives investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann have taken samples of potential evidence from abandoned houses near where she went missing 18 years ago.
A squad of half a dozen German and Portuguese police officers and firefighters used chainsaws, hedge trimmers and pickaxes to clear thick foliage and access severalcrumbling ruins near Praia da Luz in the Algarve, Portugal on Tuesday.
The officers removed mounds of earth and deposited them in plastic containers, which will be taken away for further examination.
Close by, two blue supply tents had been set up to store equipment, including a ground-penetrating radar device.
At one derelict sand-coloured house, about 300m from the coastline, a group of four firemen and one police officer pumped a disused well dry.
The full crew of around two dozen police officers, firefighters and detectives undertook the eight-hour search from 9am. They were joined by a pair of plain-clothed detectives.
Madeleine McCann disappeared in 2007 from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal. Photo / Getty Images
The search is expected to last for three more days and will encompass more than 20 privately owned plots of land to the east of the coastal town where the 3-year-old went missing while on holiday with her parents on May 3, 2007.
It covers a region of scrubland, dotted with disused wells, crumbling farmhouses and dirt tracks, that sits only a few miles from the Ocean Club resort where Madeleine vanished as her parents Kate and Gerry ate tapas nearby with their friends.
The operation was launched at the behest of German authorities as part of their investigation into Christian Brueckner, a convicted paedophile and prime suspect in the case who rented two properties in Praia da Luz around the time of her disappearance.
The suspect has said he plans to disappear after his release from prison.
Scotland Yard said it did not plan to send officers to help with the search but it was ready to assist if necessary.
The BKA, Germany’s equivalent of the FBI, hopes any forensics salvaged from the dig sites may also yield the key piece of evidence needed to formally charge Brueckner.
Convicted paedophile Christian Brueckner is the prime suspect in Madeleine McCann's disappearance. Photo / AFP
Brueckner, who is due to be released after serving a seven-year-prison sentence for raping an American tourist in 2005, has always denied his involvement.
During Tuesday’s search, several officers wore face masks to protect themselves from the clouds of dust thrown up by the work in the 71F (22C) temperatures.
Their efforts attracted the attention of passing cyclists who slowed down and stopped by the dig sites out of curiosity.
Footage of the scene showed uniformed officers on a cordon on a dirt road in Atalaia – a neighbourhood of Lagos municipality – waving through unmarked vans and cars.
The vehicles had German licence plates from the city of Wiesbaden, where the BKA has its headquarters.
A van belonging to Portugal’s Maritime Police, a force that has jurisdiction over coastal areas and took part in previous searches of beaches, wells and reservoirs using specialist divers, also arrived.
