Police who are investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann have given an update after they seized a number of items during last week's search in Portugal.
After German police requested a fresh search, a number of items were recovered last Thursday after three days in the surrounding area of the Arade dam and reservoir - just 30 miles from Praia de Luz where the young girl was last seen alive just before her fourth birthday in 2007.
Today in the latest update, Braunschweig Public Prosecutor's Office said they cannot confirm whether the items taken from their dig in Portugal are connected to the disappearance of Madeleine, as the Mirror reports. They have appealed for more time to assess them.
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This comes after German police who are investigating the case said in June 2020 that they believed Madeleine was sadly dead and suspect Christian Brückner was likely responsible.
After discovering that the reservoir in Portugal was believed to be his favourite spot, the police carried out the first search in nine years.
Detectives from the Federal Criminal Police (BKA), Germany’s equivalent of the FBI, spent days searching land next to the Arade Dam last week, along with British and Portuguese police.
They used sniffer dogs, radar and search teams to scour the location just 31 miles from where three-year-old Maddie vanished in 2007.
After the dig, police left behind two-foot-deep boreholes and it is believed the soil they recovered from them is being forensically analysed in Germany.
The statement from the Braunschweig Public Prosecutor's Office said: “The search operation ended as planned on Thursday after three days.
"A previously exactly specified area along the reservoir has been fully searched for possible pieces of evidence searched.
“A number of items were seized as part of the investigation. These will be evaluated in the coming days and weeks", he said.
“Thank you to all the police officers involved in the search."
“The cooperation between the Portuguese police, police officers from Great Britain and the Federal Criminal Police Office went excellently and very constructively.
“The investigations conducted here in Braunschweig against the 46-year-old suspect are expected to continue for a long time.”
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