Madeleine McCann latest update: Search of remote reservoir enters second day as police seen digging beside dam

Watch live as police search a reservoir in Portugal on Tuesday May 23 in connection with the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.

Portuguese authorities, with the support of German police, have set up tents near the Barragem do Arade reservoir, some 50 km from where the toddler, aged three, went missing in Praia da Luz in 2007.

The searches are carried out on behalf of the German police in the presence of British officials.

Police officers looking for Madeleine McCann are searching a lake in Portugal for the pink pajamas the British toddler was wearing when she disappeared in 2007, according to sources.

Officers are looking for clothing and old rags that may be linked to her disappearance based on “credible information,” the report said Daily Mail.

According to the report, investigators yesterday took “a number of sacks” from the remote Algarve reservoir.

Police search parties have returned to an operational tent near Barragem do Arade, Portugal, using vehicles registered in Germany and Portugal, as the search for Maddy McCann continues.

Madeleine McCann’s disappearance has puzzled investigators for 16 years – but in 2020 a new potential suspect emerges.

Now police are searching a remote reservoir in Portugal’s Algarve region that he visited earlier to shed more light on the case.

German prisoner Christian Brückner was first named in the summer in connection with the unsolved mystery and was officially named as a suspect last year.

His yellow and white VW T3 Westfalia camper van was reportedly located near the resort of Praia da Luz in Portugal, where the young girl went missing on May 3, 2007.

This is reportedly the fourth search for Madeleine McCann, following the first in 2007 in the Algarve and further attempts in 2013 and 2014.

Another search took place in Germany in 2020 when officials said a 45-year-old German national identified as Christian Brückner, who was in the Algarve in 2007, was a suspect in the case.

Brückner is currently serving a seven-year sentence in Germany for the 2005 rape of a 72-year-old woman in Portugal.

He is being investigated on suspicion of murder in the McCann case, but has not been charged. He spent many years in Portugal, including in Praia da Luz around the time of Madeleine’s disappearance.

As investigators continue their search for Madeleine McCann, here is a timeline of events leading up to the disappearance:

May 3, 2007: Madeleine has been reported missing from a holiday home in the town of Praia da Luz, in the Algarve holiday region. Her parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, let her sleep with two younger siblings while they ate dinner at a nearby restaurant.

May 6, 2007: Police say there is evidence the girl was kidnapped and are demanding her return.

May 11, 2007: David Beckham and other football stars are calling for Madeleine’s safe return. Police in Portugal are reducing local searches, saying the case has become an international investigation.

May 12, 2007: Madeleine McCann’s fourth birthday.

Police officers examining the reservoir apparently collected a lot of evidence during the search.

Several sacks were carried away from the site, although it is unclear what they contained. German prosecutors confirmed that they searched the reservoir but could not give any further details “for tactical reasons”.

Prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters told NDR they had “reason to believe” evidence could be found in the area.

Mr Wolters previously said it was unable to provide “concrete information” about what sparked the latest search.

“It’s not leads coming from the defendants … but you can imagine that we don’t start searching spontaneously somewhere in Portugal, there must be a good reason for it,” he said.

Police yesterday resumed their search for a remote reservoir in Portugal amid ongoing investigations into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.

Dozens of officers made their way to the Barragem do Arade reservoir to find the toddler who disappeared from an Algarve apartment complex 16 years ago.

The search site is approximately 30 miles from Praia da Luz, the homes in the municipality of Lagos where Madeleine disappeared on May 3, 2007.