00:00Her parents are frantic. One moment she was sleeping in their rented apartment, the next she'd vanished while they were having dinner just yards away.
00:1218 years have now passed since British toddler Madeleine McCann went missing, whilst on holiday in the Portuguese resort of Praia de Luz.
00:21The three-year-old disappeared from her bed at the Ocean Club Resort on the 3rd of May 2007 as her parents dined with friends nearby. She has not been seen since.
00:33What started as a desperate local search for the toddler quickly turned into the largest investigation in Portuguese criminal history and an international campaign for her safe return.
00:45I appeal to anyone with information to come forward. Please, come forward.
00:50Today, around 30 German police officers, including forensic experts, are carrying out a fresh search alongside Portuguese police close to where Madeleine was last seen.
01:0221 pieces of land are to be examined and search teams are expected to use radar equipment that can scan beneath the ground.
01:10Why are German police involved in a two decades-old investigation in Portugal involving a toddler from the UK?
01:18Well, in the immediate aftermath of Madeleine's disappearance, various sightings of people acting suspiciously in the hours and days before the kidnapping were reported to police.
01:30Multiple leads were followed up and persons of interest questioned, none of which resulted in Madeleine being found or any charges being brought.
01:38In 2011, Scotland Yard offered to help the Portuguese authorities in the hunt for Madeleine.
01:44British detectives came to the Algarve in 2014 to search a patch of scrubland close to where Madeleine vanished.
01:51Then, in June 2020, authorities in Germany identified a new suspect, Christian Bruckner, who had spent time in the Algarve between 2000 and 2017.
02:03The German national is currently serving a seven-year prison sentence in Germany for raping a 72-year-old woman in Portugal in 2005.
02:13He remains the prime and only suspect in the McCann case, but denies any involvement.
02:19German investigators and Portuguese officers last carried out searches in the Algarve in 2023, near the Beharjaim do Arad reservoir, some 50 kilometers northeast of Praia da Luz.
02:33It's a site Bruckner is alleged to have regularly visited.
02:37They found materials that they believe could have been from the pajamas that Madeleine was wearing on the night that she was snatched from her apartment.
02:44But unfortunately, over the years, it was impossible to get any DNA out of that material.
02:49What they need now is to find ideally some bones.
02:52There's not going to be much left, but with modern technology, if they find just a tiny, tiny trace, they can actually convert that and get a match.
03:00Bruckner is due to be released from prison in three months, and German authorities fear he will disappear.
03:06So the clock is ticking on their chance of bringing charges.
03:10The Metropolitan Police says it is aware of the current operation, but that British officers are not involved in the latest searches.
03:18In April, ministers in the UK approved more than £100,000 in additional funding for Scotland Yard detectives investigating Madeleine's disappearance.
03:29Aged three when she went missing, Madeleine McCann would have celebrated her 22nd birthday last month.
03:36Her parents, Kate and Jerry, say their determination to leave no stone unturned in the search for their eldest child is unwavering.
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03:56When the racial festa was invaded, everything could Mirabeth Newman would be located.
03:58A lot of theissing is indeed looking for discrimination.
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