Sniffer dogs join hunt for missing Madeleine

Scotland Yard detectives work with a sniffer dog at an area in Praia da Luz, near Lagos, yesterday.

London Evening Standard/London

Police using sniffer dogs yesterday began scouring an area of scrubland close to where Madeleine McCann vanished in a fresh hunt for clues.

A team of officers were also combing the wasteland on foot, some looking for signs of disturbed earth using radar equipment.

The search, in the Portuguese resort of Praia da Luz, is one of the most significant developments in the hunt for Madeleine. Officers began work yesterday morning, led by Scotland Yard, which has launched a new investigation into her disappearance seven years ago.

Two sniffer dogs accompanied by British handlers spent around five minutes on a flat area of scrubland, at the bottom of a slope.

They were then taken away out of sight, while around 10 officers stood around in discussion. Two local officers on horseback also patrolled the scene, while another pair walked around the cordon with German shepherd dogs.

A number of small blue tents were erected inside the cordon and around six Portuguese police vans could be seen on top of a large mound in the middle of the scrubland, which overlooks the sea.

The land is a few minutes’ walk from the Ocean Club resort apartment where the McCann family were staying in May 2007 when Madeleine disappeared, aged three.

The site has reportedly been marked out to be searched because it is in the direction of a spot where a suspect was seen walking with a little girl in his arms on the night of the toddler’s disappearance.

Following an assessment of the land using radar equipment, picks will be used to start excavations and diggers will be brought in if they are needed to probe deeper underground.

The site is the size of at least three football pitches. The ground, which has previously been used to grow cabbages, is hard and densely covered with bushes and thick grass.

The area was searched once before when Madeleine first vanished.

The latest effort comes after delicate negotiations between Scotland Yard and Portuguese authorities. Portuguese police have also re-opened their inquiry into Madeleine’s disappearance but, while they are working with the UK force, they have refused to set up an official joint investigation.

One line of inquiry for Scotland Yard is the possibility that a lone male paedophile staged a series of sex attacks on young British girls while they were on holiday in the Algarve.

They are looking at nine sexual assaults and three “near misses” on British girls aged six to 12 between 2004 and 2006, including one in 2005 on a 10-year-old girl in Praia da Luz, where Madeleine vanished two years later.

Hundreds of people have already contacted police in response to appeals for help finding the attacker.

Madeleine’s parents Kate, 46, and Gerry McCann, 45, have not travelled to Portugal but are being kept informed by Scotland Yard during a “stressful time for them”.

“They understandably have to remain positive and assume Madeleine is alive, but the dig raises the possibility of finding evidence that she is not”, a source close to the couple said.

Scotland Yard refused to comment on the search, saying it was “not prepared to give a running commentary”.