Police search allotment in McCann investigation
German police investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann have begun digging up land close to a former home of the prime suspect.
Detectives using heavy equipment, including an excavator, started work late Tuesday examining an allotment just outside Hannover, the city where Christian Bruckner lived temporarily in 2017.
‘‘I can confirm that the search is being carried out in connection with the investigation into the Maddie McCann case and is still ongoing. I can’t disclose any further details about the operation,’’ Julai Meyer, from the prosecutor’s office in nearby Braunschweig, said.
Bruckner, a convicted paedophile, who was living in the Algarve when Madeleine McCann went missing in May 2007, was named as the prime suspect in her disappearance last month. German authorities have said they are convinced she is dead and claim to have evidence linking Bruckner to the case.
Local police have admitted they do not have enough to charge Bruckner and have refused to divulge what evidence they have against him.
Bruckner is in prison in Kiel, serving a jail sentence for drug offences, but he has also been convicted of a rape in
Praia da Luz, which occurred in 2005.
Specialist detectives, accompanied by sniffer dogs, arrived at the allotments shortly after dawn and spent much of the day excavating a specific corner of a plot. One officer could be seen chest deep in a hole, while colleagues appeared to be placing samples of earth in large plastic bags.
Around a dozen detectives were at the site and the excavator was being used to remove large stones from the ground. Forensic vans were also parked at the site and sources said the dig was expected to continue through the night and into the coming days. The area the police are examining is around 20 square metres and sits next to a canal.
It is thought that one hole they have dug is at least two metres deep.
Federal detectives travelled from Wiesbaden, Braunschweig and Hannover to the scene and at least one vehicle had driven from Berlin.
Earlier this month, detectives in Portugal carried out a series of searches at wells in the Algarve region. Bruckner is known to have lived in Hannover in 2017, sleeping in a trailer while working at a car repair centre about 6 kilometres away from the allotment site. – Telegraph Group