the police of Portugalassisted by German and British agents, resumed this Tuesday the search for madeleine mccannthe British girl who disappeared in Algarvea tourist region in the south of the country, 16 years ago.
Between 20 and 30 police officers, some of them in uniform, were seen in the area of the reservoir of Aradeabout 50 kilometers from Praia da Luzthe place where the girl, then three years old, was last seen alive in 2007.
The Portuguese police set up a blue tent and cordoned off the area. Eyewitnesses recounted that the agents began the search shortly before 08:00 in the morning in an area a few kilometers from the store. More than a dozen police cars and trucks could be seen arriving at the scene.
The Portuguese authorities explained in a statement on Monday that the search was resumed order of Germany and with the collaboration of Great Britain.
The prosecutor’s office BraunschweigGermany, said in a statement on Tuesday that “criminal proceedings are underway in Portugal as part of the investigation into the Madeleine McCann case.”
“The measures are being applied through mutual legal assistance by the portuguese prosecutor with the support of agents from the Federal Criminal Police Office,” added the note.
According to the statement, the authorities are not disclosing “more detailed background information (…) for investigative tactical reasons.”
In mid-2020, the German police identified Christian Brueckner, a 45-year-old German who was in the Algarve in 2007, as a suspect in the case. Brueckner has denied any involvement.
Brueckner is serving a seven-year prison sentence in Germany for a rape he committed in Portugal in 2005.
The suspect is under investigation on suspicion of murder in the McCann case, but has not been charged. He spent many years in Portugal, including in Praia da Luz at the time of Madeleine’s disappearance.
Madeleine’s disappearance woke up world interest for yearswith public claims to have seen it as far away as Australia, and has spawned a large number of books and television documentaries.
The reward for information leading to finding Madeleine, who would now be 20 years old, already reaches several million dollars.
British, Portuguese and German police continue to reconstructing what happened when the girl disappeared from her bed in the southern Portuguese resort on May 3, 2007. She was in the same room as her 2-year-old twin brother and sister while their parents dined with friends at a nearby restaurant.
(With information from AP)
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Source-www.infobae.com