Portuguese police start new search in Madeleine McCann case

Portuguese police on Tuesday started a new investigation near the place where British toddler Madeleine McCann disappeared while on holiday with her family in 2007, a spokeswoman said.

Madeleine went missing aged three from an apartment at the coastal resort of Praia da Luz in southern Portugal, sparking an international campaign to find her and unprecedented media coverage.

Several police vehicles were on Tuesday seen driving down a dirt road guarded by officers, AFP journalists at the scene said.

The last searches in the Portuguese investigation were conducted in May 2023, near a lake.

The new searches are expected to continue until Friday and are being conducted at the request of German authorities investigating Christian Brueckner, a convicted rapist who is suspected of having killed Madeleine.

"All the evidence seized by the police will, with the prior authorisation of the national public prosecutor's office, be handed over to the agents of the German federal criminal police service," a police source said.

At the time of Madeleine's disappearance, Brueckner was living near the McCann's apartment in the southern Algarve region.

A mobile phone registered in his name was traced close to their accommodation on the night she went missing.

Brueckner is currently serving a seven-year prison sentence in Germany for the rape in 2005 of a 72-year-old American woman in Praia da Luz. His sentence is due to end in September.

He was acquitted in October 2024 in Germany at trial for two sexual assaults and three rapes committed in Portugal between 2000 and 2017.

The German authorities in 2020 said they were convinced of Brueckner's involvement in Madeleine's disappearance, which gained worldwide publicity and has seen several false leads.

He has not been charged in connection with the McCann case.

AFP