The latest searches for Madeleine McCann are getting underway in Portugal with officers gathering in countryside near Praia da Luz, where she was last seen 18 years ago. The three-year-old disappeared from her bed at the Ocean Club resort on 3rd May 2007 as her parents dined with friends nearby. She has not been seen since. Report by Jonesia. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
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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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