Police have begun photographing an excavation site near the banks of a remote reservoir in Portugal as the fresh Madeleine McCann searches entered a third day. Officers maintained their focus on an area of woodland on a peninsula at the Barragem do Arade on Thursday after a digging operation was commenced on Wednesday afternoon. Police have been spotted removing what appeared to be large brown evidence bags from the search site. Heavy machinery, which had been used to cut through the vast undergrowth, was removed from the search area on Thursday afternoon amid reports that officers had been told to stand down by 4pm.
A large section of the Barragem do Arade has been cordoned off since Tuesday morning, around 30 miles from where Madeleine went missing in 2007. Officers used shovels to excavate their area of focus, and sniffer dogs and pickaxes have also been deployed over the course of the searches.
As some concentrated on the digging site, others used rakes and shovels to scour the surrounding area, slowly making their way through the recently trimmed undergrowth. The operation is being carried out at the request of German investigators who believe their prime suspect, convicted sex offender Christian Brueckner, 45, kidnapped and murdered the youngster.
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