Hidden basement discovered
GERMAN police have reportedly found a “secret cellar” at the former home of the prime suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.
On the third and final day of digging, using sniffer dogs and ground-penetrating radar, police discovered a hidden “cellar” at the site, German newspaper Bild reported.
German police have yet to comment on the reports.
The cellar was discovered as investigators dug a deep hole 15m wide in the garden of a secluded holiday chalet outside Hanover.
Earlier this week, police confirmed they had launched a large-scale operation on the site, which is near a trailer where suspect Christian Brueckner lived in between his stints in Portugal.
Brueckner lived “off-grid” near the Hanover allotment in the years after the British girl’s disappearance in 2007, locals have claimed.
Locals told reporters the convicted sex offender “lounged around drinking beer” and told people he was a “car mechanic” while living in a van.
The find was made on Wednesday afternoon (local time), with the “basement” underneath a house that has since been demolished, The Sun reported.
The tenant of an adjacent plot said the cellar had been at the site for years but was not filled in when its above-ground structure was torn down in 2007 – the same year Madeleine disappeared.
The search of the site is due to continue for another two days, German police confirmed.
Thought to be linked to the huge probe, divers also were spotted by locals searching the River Leine in the nearby town of Seelze. Police are also said to be searching the Linden branch channel, a nearby canal, German news site Haz.de reported.
As the search continued for a third day, some of the officers taking part in the hunt for clues that might solve one of the world’s most infamous crimes appeared exhausted.
British police officers are also taking part in the investigation and have quizzed a garage owner who rented a workspace to Brueckner.
The search at the site began after another allotment holder at the location tipped off police after watching a Crimewatch TV show about unsolved crimes that featured Madeleine’s case.
Specialist ground radar and sniffer dogs have been brought in to help the search as police used machinery and shovels to dig up the earth.
Police also removed a skipfull of evidence for analysis from the allotment dig site.
Pictures showed the skip crammed with rubbish including rubble, gravel, a child’s bucket and old plates.
On Monday, Julia Meyer, a spokeswoman for the prosecutor’s office in Braunschweig, confirmed police investigators had been at the site since Monday with an excavator.
“The procedure is taking place in connection with our investigation regarding Maddie McCann,” she said,
Ms Meyer said she could not give any further details on the procedure, adding only that police would “still need some more time to finish”.
Madeleine was three when she disappeared from a holiday apartment at a resort in Portugal in May 2007.