Madeleine McCann search in Portugal ends after three days

The fresh search for Madeleine McCann has ended after investigators spent three days in areas near to where the three-year-old disappeared 18 years ago in Portugal.

German investigators left the search area at about 17:15 local time before Portuguese counterparts then removed the outer cordon from the site.

Madeleine disappeared while on holiday with her parents in Praia da Luz on 3 May 2007, sparking a Europe-wide police investigation that has become one of the highest-profile missing persons cases.

It is unlikely authorities will disclose the result of the search for several weeks but a conversation the BBC had with one officer suggested nothing significant was found.

Police officers on Thursday were seen holding pitchforks as they combed land in the area on the outskirts of the municipality of Lagos and some used pick-axes and shovels to dig some of the undergrowth.

A digger was used to remove rubble from one of the abandoned structures at the search site.

Later in the day tents erected as part of the base area for investigators started to be taken down.

Personnel were seen loading vans parked near the police officers' base area in Atalaia, and German and Portuguese officers were seen shaking hands and embracing as the search drew to a close.

Diggers and specialist equipment were brought in to help scour scrubland and abandoned buildings on Wednesday.

On the night Madeleine disappeared, her parents had been at dinner with friends at a restaurant a short walk away while their three-year-old daughter and her younger twin siblings were asleep in the ground-floor apartment.

Madeleine's case was initially handled by the Portuguese authorities with the aid of the Metropolitan Police.

German police took the lead in 2020 when they identified German national Christian Brückner as their prime suspect, who is known to have spent time in the same part of Portugal between 2000 and 2017.

German authorities suspect him of murder. British police continue to treat the case as a missing persons investigation.

Brückner has repeatedly denied any involvement and no charges have been brought against him relating to Madeleine's disappearance.

The 48-year-old is serving a prison sentence in for an unrelated rape case and could be released as early as September.

Portuguese prosecutors approved a European warrant to allow German teams to conduct the searches on private land.

The search took place between where Madeleine vanished and where the German investigators' prime suspect was staying at the time.

Last month, Kate and Gerry McCann marked the 18th year anniversary of their daughter's disappearance, saying their "determination to leave no stone unturned is unwavering".

However they would not comment during the "active police investigation", staff at the Find Madeleine Campaign said.