Madeleine McCann update as police conclude £300,000 search 18 years after disappearance

Three-year-old Madeleine McCann first disappeared 18 years ago

Local police carrying out search

Police have concluded their three-day search for Madeleine McCann.

German and Portuguese police and firefighters have combed an area on the outskirts of Lagos in Portugal 18 years after the three-year-old British girl disappeared.

With officers seen shaking hands and embracing at the end of the search, it closed the book on the £300,000 operation.

Teams of detectives took samples of potential evidence from properties near Praia Da Luz in Portugal

They searched local scrubland and abandoned buildings in a bid to unlock new evidence that would help bring this near-two-decade-long search to a close.

Investigators used chainsaws, digg

ers and ground-penetrating radar across a 120-acre area of land before the search ended.

The Metropolitan Police confirmed British officers had not been present at the latest searches.

It was the latest in a long line of searches made in the years since Madeleine disappeared

Early efforts focused on the Praia da Luz resort, where she was last seen in her family’s holiday apartment.

A round of applause could be heard following the officer’s final debrief of the last search before a crate of German beer was removed from one of the tents in the designated base area.

Madeleine’s parents have not commented during the “active police investigation”, staff at the Find Madeleine Campaign said.

suspect Christian Brueckner, who is 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.

In 2023, investigators carried out searches near the Barragem do Arade reservoir, about 30 miles from Praia da Luz.

Brueckner spent time in the area between 2000 and 2017 and had photographs and videos of himself near the reservoir.