Investigators are continuing to scour scrubland and abandoned buildings in the second day of the latest searches for missing Madeleine McCann.
Yesterday, fresh searches for Madeleine began, as teams drained a well and cleared areas of dense vegetation near abandoned buildings in countryside a few miles from Praia da Luz.
Teams of German and Portuguese police officers, as well as firefighters, face the daunting task of hunting for evidence 18 years on from the disappearance of the British three-year-old in 2007.
This week's operation is focusing on a sparsely developed area of land around 3.5 miles from Praia da Luz, where Madeleine was last seen while on holiday with her parents and siblings.
She vanished after she was left sleeping in a room with her toddler twin brother and sister while her parents went for dinner with friends in a nearby restaurant.
Kate and Gerry McCann are not commenting during the "active police investigation", staff at the Find Madeleine Campaign said.
Today, officers were seen clearing vegetation around abandoned buildings, wearing protective gear such as hard hats and face masks, and a digger was used to move rubble.
The area where they are working is an area of fields and scrubland between a main road and the sea, with a few buildings including a vineyard.
It has been variously reported that teams will look where trenches were dug near the resort at the time of Madeleine's disappearance, at wells, ruins and water tanks, and that there are plans to examine 21 pieces of land.
The search is being carried out at the request of the German federal police, as they look for evidence that could implicate prime suspect Christian Brueckner, who is in prison for raping a 72-year-old woman in Praia da Luz in 2005.
He is due to be released from jail in September if no further charges are brought.
The Metropolitan Police said they were aware of the operation but that British officers will not be present.
German investigators and Portuguese officers last carried out searches in 2023, near the Barragem do Arade reservoir, about 48km from Praia da Luz.
Brueckner, who spent time in the area between 2000 and 2017, had photographs and videos of himself near the reservoir.
It was previously searched in 2008, when Portuguese lawyer Marcos Aragao Correia paid for specialist divers to search it, after he claimed to have been tipped off by criminal contacts that Madeleine's body was there.
British police were later given permission to examine scrubland near where she vanished in 2014.
Last month, Madeleine's family, who are from Rothley in Leicestershire, marked the 18th anniversary of her disappearance, describing her as "beautiful and unique", before her 22nd birthday, and vowed to continue the search.
A statement from her parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, and the family, said: "The years appear to be passing even more quickly and whilst we have no significant news to share, our determination to 'leave no stone unturned' is unwavering. We will do our utmost to achieve this."
In April, ministers approved more than £100,000 (€118,000) in additional funding for Scotland Yard detectives investigating Madeleine's disappearance
