Madeleine McCann live updates: Police explore abandoned farmhouse as search gets underway near suspect’s former home

Police in Portugal have launched the first major search for missing Madeleine McCann in more than two years with operations planned until the end of the week.

We will bring you the latest updates throughout the day with reporters on the ground in Praia da Luz, the Portuguese resort Madeleine vanished from 18 years ago when she was three.

Here’s what you need to know this morning:

• Police have closed roads and started searches for Madeleine following a request from German authorities investigating the prime suspect in her disappearance Christian Breuckner
• Police sources in Portugal have said they have ‘low expectations’ of a discovery amid early signs cracks are appearing between Portuguese and German authorities
• Portuguese sources said the searches would take place between Brueckner’s old rented cottage and a rural area east heading towards Lagos known as Atalaia.
• It will be the first time police have used new ground-penetrating radar technology capable of scanning up to 15ft below the surface of the ground – meaning no potentially unnecessary digs
• Meanwhile, Brueckner has claimed he suffered a broken rib after he was assaulted by another inmate in a face-to-face interview to German media from Sehnde Prison

A former police officer once in charge of combating online child abuse has told how German police are ‘pushing’ to find one piece of evidence to link suspect Christian Brueckner to Madeleine McCann’s disappearance.

Jim Gamble, who served as chief executive of Child Exploitation & Online Protection Command, said he hoped he knew what investigators were looking for as searches resume in Portugal this week.

Speaking to Sky News, Mr Gamble said:

I’ve said many, many times the crime scene was bungled [at the time], and so there was no control. And so that chaos at the beginning, that came at a cost to the investigation.

He said police just needed ‘one piece of forensic evidence’ to link a suspect to the crime, adding:

And that’s why they’re pushing. But based on the intelligence and the information they have, I hope… they know what they’re looking for.

by Nick Pisa in Praia da Luz

As the sound of strimming was carried by the blustery wind a police officer wearing a beige shirt and sun hat could be seen using a spade to dig ground to the side of the buildings.

Colleagues wearing gloves were also carrying branches away from the area being searched while at one point an officer brought a bottle of water up from the tents.

by Nick Pisa in Praia da Luz

Around an hour into the operation six police officers could be seen searching an abandoned building in scrub on a hillside overlooking Atalaia.

They could be seen carrying plastic boxes thought to contain soil and debris from inside the old farmhouse and white safety helmets could be seen propped on a wall.

There was no roof, and a man was seen strimming back undergrowth as part of the search which took place as walkers made their way along a coastal path.

Close by a beige tent and a blue tent had been set up and this was being used for supplies and equipment storage including ground penetrating radar.

Two wells will be drained as part of the new searches into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, according to Portuguese media.

A report in the Correio da Manha newspaper states authorities will focus efforts on two wells where the water will be removed to see if there is anything of interest.

The newspaper reported that while German authorities asked for the searches to take place, the reason behind the request is not yet known.

A British man who has lived in Praia da Luz for the past 20 years says he not sure what officers are hoping to find this week after the area was previously searched for clues on Madeleine’s disappearance.

Tony Gallagher told Sky News he can remember the first search efforts for Madeleine when she vanished 18 years ago then aged three.

Speaking to Sky News, he said:

Everybody wants answers, but also it’s been a lot of money spent for 20 years with no real results. I know for a fact they’ve searched here, I’m not sure what they’re hoping to find.

The Metropolitan Police has said it is aware of the searches taking place this week in Portugal but has no involvement in them.

The force added it will offer help and support ‘wherever needed’ to Portuguese and German authorities who are leading the fresh operation in Praia da Luz.

Meanwhile, Scotland Yard is continuing its own investigation, entitled Operation Grange, which was launched in 2011, into the disappearance of Madeleine.

In April, detectives received around £108,000 in funding to support the investigation amid fears the unit tasked with finding Madeleine could be subject to heavy cuts.

Kate and Gerry McCann pictured last month at an annual vigil for Madeleine

Madeleine’s parents Kate and Gerry McCann have yet to publicly comment on the new searches for their missing daughter.

Last month, the couple said they were still determined to find out what happened on the 18th anniversary of Madeleine’s disappearance

‘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,’ they wrote on the findmadeleine.com website.

‘We will do our utmost to achieve this.’

by Nick Pisa in Praia da Luz

Police have closed roads around the village of Atalaia as part of the operation which began at 9am local time this morning.

TV crews from Britain, Germany and Portugal had set up a live point on the edge of the cordon where a blue police van was parked.

The area is around ten minutes from Praia da Luz and footpaths close to the search area had also been closed with officers manning barriers and keeping journalists at bay.

Madeleine was three when she disappeared in Praia da Luz

As police begin their latest search for Madeleine McCann, let’s take a look at the previous operations which were all unsuccessful.

Portuguese and German officers lead a week-long search operation at a remote dam a 40-minute-drive from Praia da Luz. The searches at Arade Dam – a spot that Brueckner reportedly called his ‘little paradise’ – came to nothing.

Portuguese police and firefighters searched three wells for Madeleine’s body but failed to find any trace of her.

British police were given permission to carry out digs in Praia da Luz. Those digs were linked to a UK police theory that Madeleine died during a break-in and burglars hid her body nearby.

The prime suspect in the Madeleine McCann case has given his first jail-based interview in which he revealed he suffered a broken rib after being attacked by a fellow inmate.

Convicted paedophile Christian Brueckner, 48, is currently serving a seven-year sentence for the brutal rape of a 72-year-old American woman, Dianne Menkes in the Algarve in 2006, which he still contests.

Brueckner has given a face-to-face interview to German network, RTL from Sehnde Prison near Hanover.

Brueckner claimed to journalists that he was ‘assaulted by another inmate — at least one rib was broken. I now stay in my cell 24 hours a day. I don’t go out. Not even for food.’

Read the full story here:

by Nick Pisa in Praia da Luz

The new searches revolve around the former home of Christian Brueckner – the prime suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.

Convicted paedophile and rapist Brueckner, 48, is currently serving a seven-year sentence for raping an elderly US woman close to the village of Praia da Luz – where Madeleine was staying with her parents Kate and Gerry, and is due for release later this year or early 2026.

In June 2020 German police stunned the world by naming Brueckner as the prime suspect for the ‘abduction and murder’ of Madeleine but since then no charges have been brought and questions have been raised as to why they are so sure.

The searches are seen as a last-ditch attempt to try and obtain any evidence that could link him to Madeleine’s disappearance as he has never been charged with her disappearance.

Last year he was cleared of a series of unrelated sex attacks on children and adults in the Algarve over a 17-year period between 2001 and 2018 after the judge said witnesses who testified against him, including a police informer were ‘unreliable’.

He has always denied any involvement in Madeleine’s abduction and with his release imminent pressure is growing for prosecutors to charge him and the clock is ticking.

This week’s major search, the first for more than two years in Portugal, will focus on wells, ruins, and water storage tanks on 21 plots of privately-owned land thought to cover around 120 acres.

German authorities have requested the four-day searches close to the ramshackle cottage their convicted paedophile sole suspect Christian Brueckner used to live at near to the holiday resort of Praia da Luz where Maddie vanished 18 years ago.

It emerged yesterday fresh police searches would start this morning a few miles from the Ocean Club resort where Madeleine McCann vanished on May 3, 2007 as her parents Kate and Gerry ate tapas nearby with their holiday friends.

Portuguese sources said the searches would take place between Brueckner’s old rented cottage and a rural area east heading towards Lagos known as Atalaia.

by Natalia Penza in Praia da Luz

Police will begin hunting for Madeleine McCann’s body at 9am local time today on the Algarve in a ‘last-throw-of-the-dice’ search which Portuguese cops are already predicting privately will come to nothing.

Cracks are already appearing this morning between the Portuguese police who have made it clear they are simply “complying” with decisions they haven’t taken and their German counterparts.

Officials say the areas that will be ‘turned upside down’ this week have already been checked by local police officers

A Portuguese police source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said overnight:

We have low expectations about these searches but we’ve got our orders and we’re not going to stand in the way.

The information that’s being put out in the public arena is that they’ll last five days with the preparation work and clean-up afterwards and we’ve been told to expect three days of full work on the ground. But on the Portuguese side at least there’s wishful thinking this could all be done in one day.

We would love to be proved wrong and see a significant discovery because it’s what we’ve all been working towards for so many years. But the area that’s going to be turned upside down this week has already been searched by Portuguese officers.

The start point for today’s searches is expected to be the one-bed cottage Brueckner lived in for several years a 10-minute drive from Praia da Luz.

Portuguese police will carry out the new searches this week at the request of German authorities.

It comes more than two years after the previous one in May 2023.

The move is part of a warrant issued by the Braunschweig public prosecutor’s office, in northern Germany, which is conducting a preliminary investigation into Christian Brueckner, suspected by German authorities of killing McCann, the Portuguese police spokesperson said, confirming information from British and Portuguese media.

‘All the evidence seized by police will, with prior authorisation from the national public prosecutor’s office, be handed over to agents of the German federal criminal police,’ the spokesperson added.

The Metropolitan Police said it was aware of the searches and will be on hand to offer assistance.

The McCanns present a picture of Madeleine during a press conference

Madeleine McCann was never found after going missing in 2007 from the resort in Praia da Luz where she was with her family in what has become one of the most high-profile missing person cases in history.

For more than a decade, her anguished parents Gerry and Kate have waited in vain for any news – any clue – that their child is somehow alive after all this time.

But none of the tip-offs have turned out to be correct and the main suspect in the case, convicted rapist Christian Brueckner, has still not been charged in connection with Madeleine’s disappearance.

It has been a case filled with false starts and false hopes, with thousands of bogus sightings of Madeleine from Dorset to as far away as New Zealand.

Police officers participating in today’s searches for Madeleine McCann are equipped with ground-penetrating radar technology that can scan up to 15ft below the surface of the ground.

Described as a ‘new weapon’ in their ground-scanning radar, it means officers will only dig if they detect anything of interest instead of for the sake of it.

More than 20 privately owned pieces of land will be searched including wells, ruins and water storage tanks.

One investigating source told the Sun:

Following Brueckner’s trial last year someone contacted them with theories on where anyone who took Madeleine might’ve dumped her. They told cops about trenches that were dug in Praia at the time Madeleine disappeared, and the house where Brueckner had lived on the edge of the village.

Of course, all of these places have been searched over and over again, but now they have a new weapon in their ground-scanning radar. It means they don’t need to dig for the sake of it. But as soon as they spot anything of interest they are ready to excavate and check it.

Last night roads were closed and tents set up between the resort in Portugal where the three-year-old vanished 18 years ago, and a house nearby where Christian Brueckner once lived.

Prime suspect Brueckner, 48, is in prison in Germany serving seven years for rape and the request for yet another search was made by German police.

At least 30 agents from Germany’s FBI, the BKA, acted on a tip-off and arrived at the idyllic Portuguese resort.

Hello and welcome to MailOnline’s live coverage as police carry out fresh searches for Madeleine McCann in the Portguese resort she vanished from 18 years ago.

German investigators will today lead new attempts to find Madeleine who was three years old when she disappeared from an apartment complex in Praia da Luz while on holiday with her family.

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

Stick with us throughout the day as we bring you live updates from Praia da Luz with our reporter Nick Pisa plus Jamie Bullen reporting in London.