LISBON, Portugal — Police in Portugal have called off the latest manhunt for the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, the British child who disappeared in 2007 in southern Portugal.
Officials did not release details about the results of the search Thursday. A Portuguese police statement said some items had been collected and would be handed over to German authorities for investigation.
A search around the pool, located about 50 kilometers (30 miles) from the resort of Praia da Luz, where the three-year-old girl was last seen 16 years ago, began on Tuesday following a request by German authorities.
A young German suspect in the case is in prison in Germany for another crime.
Portuguese, German and British police were involved in the three-day operation as investigators searched the banks of the Arade reservoir and used sniffer dogs and a drone.
German prosecutor Christian Wolters told The Associated Press on Thursday that authorities will review the progress of the search after the end, adding that a statement could be issued next week.
Portuguese journalists said that this was the fourth search by the police for McCann, following the first in 2007 in the southern Algarve and other efforts in 2013 and 2014. Another search took place in Germany in 2020.
The reservoirs are half full due to the drought that has affected Portugal and neighboring countries Spain. The survey would be below the water line when it rains.
In mid-2020, German authorities said a 45-year-old German citizen, identified by the media as Christian Brueckner, who was in the Algarve in 2007, was a suspect in the case. Brueckner has refused to take any action.
Brueckner is currently serving a seven-year prison sentence in Germany for raping a 72-year-old woman in Portugal in 2005.
He is being investigated 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 Madeleine disappeared.
Madeleine McCann’s case has attracted international attention for several years, with reports of sightings of her as far away as Australia, and several books and television documentaries about the case.
British, Portuguese and German police are still piecing together what happened the night the little boy disappeared from his bed in southern Portugal on May 3, 2007. He was in the same room as his twins and sister, who were two years old. old at the time, while his parents were having dinner with friends at a nearby restaurant.
Madeleine’s parents have not responded to the search, according to an email response from the website set up to search for the child, findmadeleine.com.
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Ciarán Giles in Madrid, and Geir Moulson in Berlin, contributed to this article.