The 'race against time' to find Madeleine McCann evidence

Search team 'swinging pickaxes' and using diggers after 'disturbing' discoveries linked to key suspect Christian Brückner

Police investigators search the Atalaia area in the investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann
Police investigators in Atalaia, close to Praia da Luz, Portugal, where Madeleine McCann disappeared nearly 20 years ago
(Image credit: Patricia De Melo Moreira / AFP / Getty Images)

A fresh search linked to the 2007 disappearance of British toddler Madeleine McCann has entered its third day, as police "race against time" to find forensic evidence pointing to their "prime suspect", convicted German paedophile Christian Brückner.

German investigators have been given until Friday to complete their search but, faced with an 8.1 square mile site, covered with "dense shrubs, empty barns, disused wells and dirt tracks", they "have got their work cut out", said Sky News. Brückner, currently in prison on a separate rape conviction, is due for release in September, after which he reportedly "plans to disappear", said The Telegraph.

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  Chas Newkey-Burden has been part of The Week Digital team for more than a decade and a journalist for 25 years, starting out on the irreverent football weekly 90 Minutes, before moving to lifestyle magazines Loaded and Attitude. He was a columnist for The Big Issue and landed a world exclusive with David Beckham that became the weekly magazine’s bestselling issue. He now writes regularly for The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, Metro, FourFourTwo and the i new site. He is also the author of a number of non-fiction books.