German police have found ‘a number of items’ during fresh searches for evidence in the Madeleine McCann case.

Part of the Barragem do Arade reservoir in Portugal was cordoned off last week, about 30 miles from where three-year-old Madeleine went missing in 2007.

Prosecutor Christian Wolters said the individual items seized as part of searches would be evaluated over the coming days and weeks.

None of the item can yet be linked with the investigation into the missing girl’s disappearance.

The materials have now been sent to Germany for testing.

Police were given the go-ahead to search the area after German prosecutors received ‘certain tips’ about the case.

Heavy machinery, sniffer dogs and pickaxes were used during the operation.

It was carried out at the request of German investigators who believe their prime suspect, convicted sex offender Christian Brueckner, kidnapped and murdered the youngster.

He is in prison in Germany for the rape of a woman in Praia da Luz in 2005, and is suspected of further rapes and child sexual abuse committed in the area between 2000 and 2017.

He has reportedly denied any involvement in Madeleine’s disappearance.

Madeleine was three when she vanished while on holiday with her parents in Praia da Luz, after they left her and her younger twin siblings asleep in their apartment while they went out to dinner with friends.

Portuguese lawyer Marcos Aragao Correia previously claimed that criminal contacts had told him that Madeleine’s body was in the reservoir, and in 2008 he raised funds for unsuccessful private searches of the water.

The new searches came as the Home Office granted an extra £110,000 in funding this financial year for the Metropolitan Police to assist with finding Madeleine, down from just over £300,000 last year.

The total funding given to Operation Grange has been just under £13.1 million since 2011.

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