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, local media says.
Police were at the scene with ‘heavy equipment’ including an excavator, according to HAZ, near where suspect Christian Brueckner is known to have lived.
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.
The Braunschweig prosecutors’ office told German media that the search was linked to Madeleine, who disappeared from Praia da Luz in Portugal in 2007.
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.
Brueckner was identified as the new lead suspect last month after German police released a trove of new evidence including details of his cars and phone numbers.
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
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.
The German paedophile has a long list of offences to his name, including the rape of a 72-year-old woman in Portugal in 2005.