Police investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann say they have recovered a number of items from their recent search of a reservoir in Portugal.
German authorities last week helped Portuguese crews comb a remote area inland from the Algarve coastal resort where Madeleine went missing from her bedroom during a family holiday in 2007.
Follow The Independent’s live coverage for all the latest updates
Prosecutor for the city of Braunschweig, Christian Wolters, said the individual items seized as part of searches would be evaluated over the coming days and weeks.
“Whether some of the items actually relate to the Madeleine McCann case cannot yet be confirmed,” the prosecutor’s statement read.
Last week, police in Portugal undertook a three-day search at the remote reservoir which is located around 31 miles from the Praia de Luz resort- the hotel where Madeleine vanished while her parents were at dinner in a tapas bar with friends around 100 yards away from their holiday apartment.
As part of this investigation, police dug holes of around 60cm and the surrounding woodland showed pathways had been cut by heavy machinery, leading to the main flattened 160 square foot excavation area.
The fresh search operation took place at the request of German investigators who believe their prime suspect, convicted sex offender Christian Brueckner, 45, kidnapped and murdered the youngster.
German authorities have not revealed what triggered the latest search operation, but Mr Wolters had said they were acting on the basis of “certain tips”.
In a short statement today, Mr Wolters said the investigation into 46-year-old suspect Christian Brueckner is expected to continue for a long time.
He said the co-operation between German, British and Portuguese authorities went “excellently and very constructively”.
Brueckner is in prison in Germany for the rape of a woman in Praia da Luz in 2005, and is suspected of further rapes and child sexual abuse committed in the area between 2000 and 2017.
He has denied any involvement and is currently behind bars in Germany for raping a 72-year-old woman in the same part of Portugal.
Portuguese lawyer Marcos Aragao Correia previously claimed that criminal contacts had told him that Madeleine‘s body was in the reservoir, and in 2008 he raised funds for unsuccessful private searches of the water.
The new searches came as the Home Office granted an extra £110,000 in funding this financial year for the Metropolitan Police to assist with finding Madeleine, down from just over £300,000 last year.
The total funding given to Operation Grange has been just under £13.1 million since 2011.
