Madeleine McCann police cut down trees as they search suspect’s ‘little paradise’ in Portugal

Officers were working with strimmers and heavy machinery at Barragem do Arade visited by Christian Breuckner

Police have cut down trees and swathes of undergrowth as they continue to search Madeleine McCann suspect Christian Brueckner’s “little paradise” in Portugal.

Officers were working with strimmers and heavy machinery at the Barragem do Arade on Wednesday, around 30 miles from where Madeleine went missing in 2007.

On the second day of the latest hunt for the missing girl, the search team were this morning focusing on a valley slightly north of a secluded clearing behind trees near where three tents were put up on Monday.

The dense vegetation meant they had to use tools including chainsaws to remove trees to access the water properly.

Officers are also understood to be searching the reservoir for the pink pyjamas Madeleine was wearing when she vanished, sources close to the investigation have said.

A fire vehicle and rigid-hull inflatable boat were on the banks of the reservoir searching and a number of bags were spotted being taken from the desolate site on Wednesday, as reported by The Sun.

Other officers with a sniffer dog were seen entering an area of woodland as the search continued, while others carried spades and rakes as they combed the undergrowth for clues.

Personnel clear undergrowth with machinery at Barragem do Arade reservoir (PA)

Madeleine’s disappearance has attracted significant media attention since she vanished while on holiday with her parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, in Praia da Luz, after they left her and her younger twin siblings asleep in their apartment while they went out to dinner with friends.

The reservoir has been put on lockdown with a no-fly zone in place above it and roadblocks stopping journalists and onlookers from getting a close view of what is going on.

The searches are being carried out at the request of German investigators who believe their prime suspect, convicted rapist Brueckner, kidnapped and murdered the little girl.

German and Portuguese Judiciary police members walk with a sniffer dog at the search area (Getty)

He is serving a prison sentence in Germany for the rape of a woman in Praia da Luz in 2005, and is suspected of further rapes and child sexual abuse committed in the area between 2000 and 2017.

German authorities have not revealed what triggered the latest search operation, but the prosecutor for the city of Braunschweig, Christian Wolters, said they were acting on the basis of “certain tips”.

He told German public broadcaster NDR: “We have indications that we could find evidence there. I don’t want to say what that is exactly, and I also don’t want to say where these indications come from.

“The only thing that I would clarify is that it doesn’t come from the suspect – so we don’t have a confession or anything similar now, or an indication from the suspect of where it would make sense to search.”

A search dingy navigates in the Arade dam near Silves, Portugal (AP)

The dam, near the town of Silves, is not thought to have been searched since March 2008 after Portuguese lawyer Marcos Aragao Correia claimed criminal contacts had told him that Madeleine‘s body was in the reservoir, and he raised funds for unsuccessful private searches of the water.

The search is the first major operation of its kind since June 2014 when British police were given permission to do digs in Praia da Luz that involved sniffer dogs trained in detecting bodies and ground-penetrating radar.

Four teams of officers from the Portuguese Policia Judiciaria are involved in the operation, along with at least 20 of their German counterparts, Portuguese news outlet SIC said.

Personnel clear undergrowth with machinery at Barragem do Arade reservoir close to white tents (PA)

British officers from the Metropolitan Police are also present while the work is carried out so they can inform Madeleine‘s parents if there are any developments.

On Tuesday, search teams were seen scouring the banks – hammering at the ground with pickaxes and combing through small rocks with rakes and spades.

Around a dozen officers with sniffer dogs were also at the site, while the fire service boat took officers onto the water.

Portuguese daily Expresso said that the first day ended with no significant results, and that police had collected some objects including fabrics and garments.

Additional reporting by agencies