Police began searching a reservoir this morning as they investigate the disappearance Madeleine McCann.

On Tuesday, police divers were spotted entering the water of the Arade dam, located approximately 50km (31 miles) away from the place where a British toddler was reported missing 16 years ago in Praia de Luz, Algarve.

Two officers were also on board a boat that was sent into the reservoir.

Sky News Europe correspondent Siobhan Roberts explained that officers will also be looking at the scrubland surrounding the water.

Advertisement

On Monday, after reports about the new search appeared, vehicles and officers were seen for the first time at the site of reservoir.

The local police confirmed that they are conducting searches in the Algarve on the request of German officers and in the presence British officers.

It comes after German police announced in June 2020 that <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/madeleine-mccann-family-say-identification-of-new-suspect-is-a-significant-development-12000207#:~:text=German%20public%20prosecutors%20have%20said,his%20surname%20for%20legal%20reasons." It comes after German police announced in June 2020 that a href="https://news.sky.com/story/madeleine-mccann-family-says%20identification%20of%20new%20suspect%20is%20a%20significant%20development-12000207#::text=German%20public%20prosecutors%20have%20said,his%20surname%20for%20legal%20reasons."

The convicted drug dealer and child abuser used to frequent the reservoir. He allegedly called it “his paradise”.

Christian B, who is currently behind bars for raping an elderly woman of 72 years in the same region of the Algarve from which Madeleine disappeared, has not been charged in any way with the disappearance.

He has denied all involvement.

In 2008, Marcos Aragao Correia, a Portuguese lawyer, paid for divers to search the waterway.

He claimed that he was tipped by criminal contacts to the fact that Madeleine was in the reservoir. However, nothing was discovered.

In 2014, the Portuguese authorities granted British police permission to search scrubland in the vicinity of where she disappeared.

Last month, a German court dismissed additional charges of rape and sexual offense that Christian B had not been linked to the McCann Case.

Between December 2000 and June 2017, he was accused of three counts of aggravated sexual abuse and two counts of rape.

The court in Braunschweig, however, ruled that it did not have jurisdiction over the case.

Friedrich Fulscher, an attorney, said that the court’s decision means they cannot have jurisdiction in any case involving Madeleine or. The court didn’t comment on his claim.

Madeleine, then three years old, went missing during a family vacation in 2007.

Madeleine’s parents stated that it was “essential”, on the 15th anniversary, to find out the truth about what happened to her.

Kate and Gerry McCann marked Madeleine’s 20th Birthday in the beginning of this month. They vowed to “never stop” searching for her.