Map shows two new locations where searches for Madeleine McCann will continue

A new major search for missing toddler Madeleine McCann will start in two new areas today.

The search for Madeleine,who would have celebrated her 22nd birthday last month,has involved a complex investigation involving Portuguese,British and German police forces.

She has now been missing for more than 18 years.

That search has ramped up this week with fresh searches beginning in the Lagos municipality,following a request from German police,close to where she was last seen.

A Portuguese source said of the new searches: ‘They will be land searches only. The main objective is to look for any signs of Madeleine’s body.’

The Metropolitan Police aren’t involved in these latest searches,it is understood.

Search areas in the hunt for Madeleine McCann – click to enlarge (Picture: Metro Graphics)

It comes as Christian Brueckner,who was identified as an official suspect in Madeleine’s disappearance back in 2022,has given his first ever interview.

The German,who is currently in prison for raping a 72-year-old woman in Praia da Luz in 2005,is due to be released in September if no further charges are brought.

He revealed what he plans to do after his release in his first face-to-face interview with a German broadcaster – and he said he’s most looking forward to eating steak and drinking a beer.

Brueckner denies any involvement with Madeleine’s disappearance,and police face a race against time to charge him.

Where is the search for Madeleine McCann taking place?

The searches,continuing for a second day today,will focus on an area between Praia da Luz,a civil parish belonging to Lagos,and one of the houses where Brueckner lived when Madeleine disappeared 18 years ago,it’s been reported.

Christian Brueckner was named as a suspect in 2022 (Picture: Phil Harris)

Around 20 properties,cisterns,wells and ruins will be ‘combed with a fine-tooth comb’,sources told Portuguese television.

This follows searches in the Barragem do Arade reservoir,located about 30miles from where Madeleine was last seen,back in 2023.

Brueckner had visited this dam on a number of occasions – but police ‘hit a roadblock’ after items found during those searches didn’t turn up any new leads.

They were the first major searches in Portugal for Madeleine McCann in nine years,following an earlier June 2014 operation when British police were permitted to do digs in Praia da Luz that involved sniffer dogs trained in detecting bodies and ground-penetrating radar.

Those Scotland Yard digs were linked to the theory that Madeleine died during a break-in and burglars dumped her body nearby.

In a smaller operation in July 2020,Portuguese police and firefighters searched three wells for Madeleine’s body but failed to find any trace of her.

How far away is it from where she disappeared?

Police are set to search 21 sites within the 26-mile stretch between Praia da Luz and the Foral where Brueckner lived in 2003.

When did she go missing?

Madeleine was three when she vanished on May 3,2007 while on holiday with her family in Praia da Luz,Portugal.