Portugal police will search a reservoir in the Algarve region on Tuesday for missing British toddler Madeleine McCann.
Portugal’s Judicial Police said in a statement the search would be conducted based on the requests of German authorities. British official will also be present.
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Police tents were erected and a road leading to the reservoir has been blocked off. The reservoir is about 50 kilometres inland from where Madeleine went missing.
It’s expected the search will take two days, with German officials to release a statement sometime Tuesday.
German authorities formally identified German man Christian Brueckner, a convicted child abuser and drug dealer, as a suspect but has not been charged.
Brueckner was in Algarve at the time of Madeleine’s disappearance but has denied any involvement.
Portuguese broadcaster SIC reported German police requested permission to search the dam as it was an “area of interest”, knowing Brueckner would frequent the area.
“Investigators know suspect Christian B used to come to this dam regularly,” the official request read.
“He would call it his little paradise and would often spend the night here. He was seen here often.”
The reservoir was previously searched by divers in 2008 as part of investigations.
It is the first major operation as part of Madeleine’s search since 2014, when UK police examined bushland near the resort she disappeared from.
Madeleine went missing in 2007 when her parents, Kate and Gerry McCann left Madeleine and her two younger siblings in an Ocean Club holiday resort room in Praia da Luz while the couple had dinner with friends at a nearby restaurant.
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