Maddie police search wells near the coast
MADELEINE MCCANN investigators have been searching disused wells in the countryside close to where she vanished.
An operation in a remote part of the Algarve coast involved more than a dozen police and divers.
One of the wells, in Vila do Bispo, is only six miles from Praia da Luz, where Madeleine was last seen in 2007.
The search, believed to have taken place on Thursday, followed weeks of similar well inspections beside a narrow road that leads to a beach near Budens.
The area was well known to German drifter and convicted sex attacker Christian Brueckner, who remains the chief suspect in her disappearance.
A photograph of his Volkswagen camper, issued by police in recent appeals, is believed to have been taken on the beach.
A local plumber, Jose Barata, saw the search get underway with police, fire fighters and their vehicles parked by the large well, which includes a derelict iron pumping engine on top of it.
He said: “I slowed my car when I saw lots of police and firefighters near the wells and they told me to keep going. I had no idea what was going on.
“They were around a big well and the firefighters had ropes and other equipment. I thought it was some sort of rescue or perhaps a suicide. Later I was told by someone I know that they cleared out a lot of waste from the wells.” The investigation into Brueckner’s suspected involvement is led by German prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters, who has said there is compelling evidence that Maddie is dead, although they have not disclosed what this is.
German and British police involved in the search for Madeleine have received nearly 2,000 pieces of information since launching appeals for public help five weeks ago.
A source close to the investigation said: “There are lots of leads being followed up, most of which will be of no use.
“But a search of a well is a complicated business and that suggests the police were working on good, credible information.”
It was revealed last week that Brueckner was arrested on suspicion of exposing himself to children in a playground a short drive from Praia da Luz in 2017 when he was on the run from German authorities over other offences.
Last month, it was reported that police were preparing to dig up land around two places where Brueckner lived near Praia da Luz, including a farmhouse not far from the apartment where Maddie was snatched.