Mapped: Where police will start new main seek for Madeleine McCann | EUROtoday

German police investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann are launching a serious new search in Portugal.

Madeleine disappeared in 2007 whereas on vacation along with her household within the resort of Praia da Luz. She vanished from a bed room in a vacation condominium complicated whereas her mother and father had been out for dinner with mates a brief stroll away.

The subsequent seek for the lacking lady grew to become one of many highest-profile unsolved lacking individual instances on the earth.

On Monday, Portuguese police mentioned that searches will probably be carried out this week within the municipality of Lagos, following a request from German authorities.

In an announcement, the nation’s investigative Judicial Police mentioned it was executing a European Investigation Order on behalf of the general public prosecutor’s workplace within the German metropolis of Braunschweig, which in 2022 formally recognized German nationwide Christian Brueckner as an official suspect in Madeleine’s disappearance.

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The seek for traces of the kid’s physique will deal with an space between Praia da Luz, a civil parish belonging to Lagos, and one of many homes the place Brueckner lived when Madeleine disappeared 18 years in the past, in line with information studies by CNN Portugal and German newspaper Bild.

Brueckner, who’s at the moment serving a seven-year jail sentence in Germany for the rape of an aged girl at her house in Praia da Luz in 2005, has denied any involvement in Madeleine’s disappearance.

Police final carried out searches within the nation in 2023 close to the Barragem do Arade reservoir, about 30 miles from Praia da Luz – however discovered no proof.

The reservoir had beforehand been searched in 2008, when Portuguese lawyer Marcos Aragao Correia paid for specialist divers to look it after he claimed to have been tipped off by prison contacts that Madeleine’s physique was there.

Later, in 2014, British police got permission to look at scrubland close to the place she vanished.

On Monday, The Sun reported that searches are to be carried out this week, close to the place she was final seen.

A spokeswoman for the Metropolitan Police mentioned: “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.

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“The Metropolitan Police Service is not present at the search, we will support our international colleagues where necessary.”

Last month Madeleine’s household marked the 18th anniversary of her disappearance, describing her as “beautiful and unique” earlier than her twenty second birthday, and expressing their willpower to maintain looking out.

A press release from her mother and father Kate and Gerry McCann and the household mentioned: “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 permitted greater than £100,000 in extra funding for Scotland Yard detectives investigating Madeleine’s disappearance.