Police officers involved in the search of a reservoir in Portugal were hunting for a gun and camcorder belonging to the main suspect in the Madeleine McCann case.
Fresh searches have now concluded as briefing tents were taken down and heavy machinery was removed from the site this afternoon.
Officers spent three days scouring a remote reservoir after "certain tips" were given to German prosecutors about the case - with fresh information suggesting officers were looking for a gun and camcorder.
They were allegedly stolen from prime suspect Christian Brueckner's house, the Mail reports.
A criminal informer tipped off German prosecutors that items taken in the 2007 raid at Brueckner's isolated home were then thrown into the reservoir.
Police are desperate to find the video camera as they believe it may contain images of Madeleine, but also of other sex attacks Brueckner is said to have carried out on at least two unidentified women.
The informer has backed up information from key witnesses Manfred Seyferth and another man called Helge Busching, who have already told German investigators they broke into the house while Brueckner was in jail.
Seyferth said the pair had found a gun and a video camera at the isolated house in Floral where Brueckner lived, a few miles from the reservoir at Silves on Portugal's Algarve, the focus of the latest police search.
The searches led police to a concentrated area of land on a peninsula at the Barragem do Arade, which personnel began to dig with shovels on Wednesday afternoon.
They cut back vast undergrowth and used rakes and pickaxes to sweep the banks of the reservoir, but officers appeared to draw their work to a close today.
A few kilometres away from the search area, blue tents had been set up for officials to hold briefings, which were eventually taken down as searches looked to be concluding.
Police were this morning seen photographing the woodland where they had been digging, before a mixture of uniformed and plain-clothed officers did a sweep of the surrounding area.
A large section of the Barragem do Arade has been cordoned off since Tuesday morning, around 30 miles from where three-year-old Madeleine went missing in 2007.
Two sniffer dogs were also deployed over the course of the searches.
The operation was carried out at the request of German investigators who believe their prime suspect, convicted sex offender Christian Brueckner, 45, kidnapped and murdered the youngster.
He 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.
German authorities have not revealed what triggered the latest search operation, but the prosecutor for the city of Braunschweig, Christian Wolters, said they were acting on the basis of "certain tips".
He told German public broadcaster NDR the new information had not come from the suspect and they did not have a confession or "any indication from the suspect of where it would make sense to search".
It had been reported investigators previously found photos and video of Brueckner at the reservoir. He has reportedly denied any involvement in Madeleine's disappearance.
Madeleine was three when she vanished while on holiday with her parents in Praia da Luz, after they left her and her younger twin siblings asleep in their apartment while they went out to dinner with friends.
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.
British officers from the Metropolitan Police were also present while the work was carried out in order to inform Madeleine's parents of any developments.
On Tuesday, search teams were seen scouring the banks - hammering away at the ground with pickaxes and combing through small rocks with rakes and spades.
Portuguese daily newspaper Expresso said that the first day ended with no significant results, and that police had collected some objects including fabrics and garments.
A no-fly zone was also imposed over the reservoir for the first two days.
Madeleine's disappearance has attracted enormous media attention since she vanished, and reporters are being kept at arm's length around a mile away from where search activity is taking place.
