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GERMAN AND PORTUGUESE POLICE HAVE BEEN SEARCHING ABANDONED PROPERTIES NEAR PRAIA DA LUZ IN PORTUGAL, WHERE MADELEINE WENT MISSING 18 YEARS AGO. 10:55, 04 Jun 2025Updated 11:26, 04 Jun 2025 A

search team investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann have taken samples of potential evidence. German and Portuguese police have been searching abandoned properties near Praia Da

Luz in Portugal, where Madeleine went missing 18 years ago. The teams were seen using shovels, pickaxes and chainsaws to clear dense vegetation and dig near a derelict building. Fresh

searches for Madeleine began in countryside a few miles from Praia da Luz on Tuesday, with firefighters spotted pumping water to drain a well. Madeleine, who was aged just three at the time,

vanished while on holiday with her family in the Algarve resort after her parents went out to dinner and left her sleeping in a room with her toddler twin siblings. While another member of

the search team cleared large rocks, about a dozen officers focused on one abandoned building where digging was taking place. As reported by the Daily Express, investigation teams have taken

samples of potential evidence from properties near Praia Da Luz in Portugal. Article continues below The search is being carried out at the request of the German investigators, as they look

for evidence that could implicate Christian Brueckner. The prime suspect is currently in prison for raping a 72-year-old woman in Praia da Luz in 2005. He is due to be released from jail in

September if no further charges are brought. Brueckner was cleared by a German court of unrelated sexual offences in October last year, alleged to have taken place in Portugal between 2000

and 2017. It has been reported teams will look where trenches were dug near the resort at the time of Madeleine's disappearance, at wells, ruins and water tanks, and there are plans to

examine 21 pieces of land. The Metropolitan Police said they were aware of the operation but British officers will not be present. German investigators and Portuguese officers last carried

out searches in 2023, near the Barragem do Arade reservoir, about 30 miles from Praia da Luz. Brueckner, who spent time in the area between 2000 and 2017, had photographs and videos of

himself near the reservoir. It was previously searched in 2008, when Portuguese lawyer Marcos Aragao Correia paid for specialist divers to search it, after he claimed to have been tipped off

by criminal contacts that Madeleine's body was there. British police were later given permission to examine scrubland near where she vanished in 2014. Last month Madeleine's

family, who are from Rothley in Leicestershire, marked the 18th anniversary of her disappearance, describing her as "beautiful and unique", before her 22nd birthday, and vowed to

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statement from her parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, and the family, said: "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 approved more than £100,000 in additional funding for

Scotland Yard detectives investigating Madeleine's disappearance.