Madeleine McCann news – live: German police release statement as fresh search begins in Algarve reservoir

Madeleine McCann, a three-year-old girl from Rothley, Leicestershire, went missing from the Portuguese holiday resort of Praia da Luz on the Algarve on 3 May 2007, a case still unsolved and still the subject of intense interest among the public and press.

Her parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, posted a statement on the Find Madeleine website on 3 May 2023 marking the latest anniversary of their daughter’s disappearance, reiterating their hopes of being reunited with her one day and posting a poem, “The Contradiction” by Clare Pollard, to express their feelings.

“Today marks the 16th anniversary of Madeleine’s abduction. Still missing… still very much missed,” they wrote.

Video shows Portugese police searching a reservoir in Algarve around 50km away from the hotel where Madeleine McCann disappeared.

A statement from Germany’s Braunschweig Public Prosecutor’s Office says: “Criminal proceedings are currently taking place in Portugal as part of the investigation into the Madeleine McCann case.

“The measures are implemented through mutual legal assistance by the Portuguese law enforcement authorities with the support of officials from the Federal Criminal Police Office.

“For tactical reasons, no further information on the background is currently being released.”

The Algarve reservoir is around 50km from Praia da Luz where Madeleine McCann went missing in 2007.

A police tent and vehicles are seen near the Arade dam, about 50 kilometers (31 miles) from Praia da Luz in Portugal.

Fresh searches are under way in Portugal in the investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.

Police divers were seen entering the water early on Tuesday at the Barragem do Arade reservoir, about 30 miles from Praia da Luz, where Madeleine went missing in 2007.

A police motor boat has also been sent into the water with two officers on board.

A Policia Judiciaria statement on Monday said they are co-ordinating searches in the Algarve at the request of German police and in the presence of British officers.

Searches are expected to begin on Tuesday as part of the investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, police in Portugal have confirmed.

A Policia Judiciaria statement said it is co-ordinating searches in the Algarve at the request of German police and in the presence of British officers.

An area near the Barragem do Arade reservoir, around 50km from Praia da Luz where Madeleine went missing in 2007, was being sealed off ahead of searches according to Portuguese news website SIC.

It said the prime suspect in her disappearance, convicted sex offender Christian Brueckner, spent time in the area between 2000 and 2017.

Investigators believe the 45-year-old killed Madeleine, then aged three, after abducting her from a holiday apartment.

Brueckner, who has denied involvement in the youngster’s disappearance, was identified as a suspect by Portuguese officials in June 2020.

He is facing charges in Germany over a number of separate sex offences allegedly committed in Portugal during that time.

German authorities were expected to release a statement about the search on Tuesday.

Images of Portuguese officers walking along dry tracks near the reservoir and sealing off areas with police tape emerged on Monday.

It is not the first time the reservoir has been searched.

In 2008, Portuguese lawyer Marcos Aragao Correia paid for specialist divers to check the waterway after he claimed to have been tipped off by criminal contacts that Madeleine’s body was in the reservoir.

The most recent search in Portugal in relation to her disappearance was in 2014, when British police were given permission to examine scrubland near where she vanished.

Earlier this month, Madeleine’s parents Kate and Gerry issued a short statement on their Find Madeleine Campaign website to mark the anniversary of her disappearance.

They said: “Today marks the 16th anniversary of Madeleine’s abduction.

“Still missing… still very much missed.

“It is hard to find the words to convey how we feel.

“The police investigation continues, and we await a breakthrough.”

The Madeline McCann case lay dormant for years before suddenly exploding back into life in June 2020 when German media revealed that Christian Brueckner, a 43-year-old prisoner with a track record of child abuse and drug trafficking, had been identified as a new suspect by the public prosecutor of the German city of Braunschweig.

He had reportedly been living in a Volkswagen camper van in the Algarve at the time of Madeleine’s disappearance and one woman has since come forward to suggest she saw a girl that might have been Madeleine speaking German in a supermarket in Portugal in 2017.

German investigators classified their probe into his movements as a murder inquiry, saying they were working on the assumption that Madeleine is dead and reporting in July 2021 that they had found an abandoned cellar beneath his former allotment near Hanover where she could, theoretically, have been held captive.

Hans Christian Wolters, the prosecutor leading the investigation into Brueckner, has said he was “very confident” the inmate is responsible for kidnapping her. “If you knew the evidence we had you would come to the same conclusion as I do but I can’t give you details because we don’t want the accused to know what we have on him – these are tactical considerations,” he told the BBC.

Brueckner was formally made a “arguido” in relation to the case on 21 April 2022.

My colleague Joe Sommerlad has more in this timeline around Madeleine’s disappearance: