Police launch new search in Portugese town

German police will undertake a new search in Portugal this week as part of ongoing investigations into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.

The search will reportedly take place in Praia da Luz, the town in the Algarve where she went missing nearly two decades ago.

Madeleine was three years old when she vanished from a holiday apartment complex on 3 May 2007.

Her disappearance sparked a Europe-wide police investigation, and has become one of the highest-profile unsolved missing person cases in the world.

The Metropolitan Police said it was not involved in the new search, but was aware of the operation being carried out by German authorities.

“We are aware of the searches being carried by the BKA (German federal police) in Portugal as part of their investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann,” the Met Police said.

German authorities said in a statement on Tuesday that “as part of the investigation into the Madeleine McCann case, criminal proceedings are currently underway in Portugal”.

They said this was being undertaken with the support of Portugese police.

Tuesday’s search will be the first to take place in two years. The last search took place near a remote dam, a 40-minute-drive from where Madeleine was last seen.

Local media reports the new search will focus on the area between her family’s holiday resort and the house where the prime suspect in the German investigation, Christian Brückner, used to live.

The 48-year-old was named by German authorities in 2020, while serving a sentence in Germany for raping a 72-year-old American tourist in Portugal in 2005.

He has never been charged in the McCann case and denies involvement.