Police say they have "seized a number of items" during last week's search at a Portuguese lake for missing Madeleine McCann.
German police have said today they cannot confirm whether the items taken from their dig in Portugal are connected to the disappearance of Madeleine but they will now take time to analyse them carefully.
Investigators spent three days searching the surrounding area of the Arade dam and reservoir, about 30 miles from Praia da Luz — where Madeleine was last seen alive in 2007.
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In June 2020, German police said that they believed Madeleine was dead and that their suspect Christian Brueckner was likely responsible.
The 45-year-old once referred to the reservoir as his "little paradise".
Now detectives are desperately seeking evidence to link Christian to Madeleine's disappearance, which led them to carry out the first search in nine years last week.
Today German authorities said their investigation into the suspect would "continue for some time".
He is currently in prison for raping a 72-year-old woman in the same area of the Algarve region from where Madeleine went missing but has not been charged with any crime related to the disappearance.
After the dig, cops left behind two-foot-deep boreholes and it is believed the soil they recovered from them is being forensically analysed in Germany.
Today a spokesperson for the Braunschweig public prosecutor, who is coordinating the investigation, 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.
“Whether individual items actually have a connection to the Madeleine McCann case cannot yet be 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.”
Officers scoured the area after "certain tips" were given to German prosecutors about Brueckner.
A criminal informer tipped off German prosecutors that items taken in the 2007 raid at Brueckner's home were then thrown into the reservoir.
Two key witnesses Manfred Seyferth and Helge Busching reportedly told German investigators they broke into Brückner's house while he 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.
Brueckner allegedly said the men are seeking to set him up because a drug deal went wrong.
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