Madeleine McCann investigators search German allotment near former home of suspect Christian Brueckner
- Police were searching an allotment near Hannover with an excavator, reports say
- German prosecutors say the search was linked to Madeleine’s disappearance
- Brueckner lived in a trailer in Hannover in between his spells living in Portugal
German police were today searching an allotment near Hannover in connection with the Madeleine McCann case.
Police were at the scene with ‘heavy equipment’ including an excavator this morning, near where suspect Christian Brueckner is known to have lived.
‘I can confirm that the search is being carried out in connection with our investigations into the Maddie case,’ said Julia Meyer from the prosecutor’s office in Braunschweig.
What police were searching for was not clear, but Brueckner is known to have lived in a trailer in the area in between spells living in Portugal.
Christian Brueckner (right) is prime suspect in the kidnap and murder of three-year-old Madeleine (left) in 2007 while she was on holiday in Praia da Luz
Multiple police vans were at the scene with ‘heavy equipment’ including an excavator, according to HAZ.
Officials from the prosecutors’ office in Braunschweig, where Brueckner was convicted of rape last year, and the federal police were on the scene this morning.
Brueckner was identified as the new lead suspect after German police released a trove of new evidence including details of his cars and phone numbers.
German authorities have been leading the investigation since Brueckner emerged as the new chief suspect last month.
Investigators in Germany said that Madeleine was assumed dead, going further than British police who are still treating it as a missing-person case.
Brueckner is currently in prison in Kiel, although legal proceedings are underway which could see him released shortly after two-thirds of his sentence.
He is in currently in jail for drug dealing, and is appealing against a conviction for the 2005 rape of a 72-year-old woman, also in Praia da Luz.
Portuguese authorities are also continuing their investigation and earlier this month searched a series of wells in the Algarve region.
Police and divers in the Algarve region examined a series disused wells in Vila do Bispo, around 10 miles from Praia da Luz.
Multiple investigators were at the scene with specialist diving equipment to examine the wells, with the largest thought to be more than 40ft deep.
Brueckner is known to have lived on the Algarve coast and his Portuguese mobile phone received a half-hour phone call in Praia da Luz around an hour before Madeleine went missing 13 years ago.
He has not yet spoken to investigators, who say they are convinced that he has committed other sex attacks.