Police to start new search near where toddler Madeleine McCann disappeared in 2007

LONDON AP Police inspecting the disappearance of British toddler Madeleine McCann will carry out fresh searches near the Portuguese holiday resort she was last seen years ago officers reported on Monday The -year-old disappeared from her bed while on vacation with her family in the Praia da Luz resort in southern Portugal on May She has not been seen since Detectives acting on a request from a German general prosecutor will carry out a broad range of searches this week in the area of Lagos in southern Portugal a Portuguese police announcement stated The main suspect in the occurrence is a German national identified by media as Christian Brueckner who is at present serving a seven-year prison sentence in Germany for raping a -year-old woman in Portugal in He is under research on suspicion of murder in the McCann situation but hasn t been charged He spent numerous years in Portugal including in Praia da Luz around the time of the child s disappearance Brueckner has denied any involvement in her disappearance Prosecutors in Braunschweig Germany who are responsible for the review didn t give details of the judicial measures taking place in Portugal according to Germany s dpa news agency They reported the measures are being carried out by Portuguese personnel with encouragement from officers from Germany s Federal Criminal Police Office Britain s Metropolitan Police announced it was aware of the searches being carried by the BKA German federal police in Portugal as part of their assessment into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann The Metropolitan Police Operation is not present at the search we will promotion our international colleagues where necessary the force added without giving more details The McCann development received worldwide interest for several years with reports of sightings of her stretching as far away as Australia as well as books and television documentaries about her disappearance Almost two decades on investigators in the U K Portugal and Germany are still piecing together what happened on the night she disappeared She was in the same room as her brother and sister -year-old twins while their parents Kate and Gerry had dinner with friends at a nearby restaurant The last time police resumed searches in the incident was in when detectives from the three countries took part in an operation searching near a dam and a reservoir about kilometers miles from the Praia da Luz resort Madeleine s family marked the th anniversary of her disappearance last month and expressed their determination to keep searching