LONDON — Police investigating the disappearance of British toddler Madeleine McCann will carry out fresh searches near the Portuguese holiday resort she was last seen 18 years ago, authorities said on Monday.
The 3-year-old disappeared from her bed while on vacation with her family in the Praia da Luz resort, in southern Portugal, on May 3, 2007. She has not been seen since.
Detectives acting on a request from a German public prosecutor will carry out ''a broad range'' of searches this week in the area of Lagos, in southern Portugal, a Portuguese police statement said.
The main suspect in the case is a German national identified by media as Christian Brueckner, who is currently serving a seven-year prison sentence in Germany for raping a 72-year-old woman in Portugal in 2005.
He is under investigation on suspicion of murder in the McCann case but hasn't been charged. He spent many years in Portugal, including in Praia da Luz, around the time of the child's disappearance. Brueckner has denied any involvement in her disappearance.
Prosecutors in Braunschweig, Germany, who are responsible for the investigation, didn't give details of the ''judicial measures'' taking place in Portugal, according to Germany's dpa news agency. They said the measures are being carried out by Portuguese authorities with support from officers from Germany's Federal Criminal Police Office.
Britain's Metropolitan Police said it was ''aware of the searches being carried by the BKA (German federal police) in Portugal as part of their investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.''
''The Metropolitan Police Service is not present at the search, we will support our international colleagues where necessary," the force added, without giving more details.
