Former neighbours of the man suspected of kidnapping Madeleine McCann are urging police to come and investigate a cellar found at a second allotment site in Germany. 

They claim a 10ft by 20ft hole was dug by suspect Christian Brueckner on the outskirts of Braunschweig, 40 miles from Hanover, and could contain vital clues as to what happened to the missing child.

Brueckner used to stay overnight on the plot, which features a small ramshackle house, while he ran a shop in Braunschweig between 2013 and 2016, neighbours told MailOnline.

He never planted any vegetables but was often seen working in a shed or drinking beer with his girlfriend, they claim. He is believed to have dug out the hole – making it into a makeshift cellar – before abruptly disappearing. 

Manfred Richter, 80, who rents a plot on the site said: ‘Brueckner excavated the floor of the house. He took out the rocks and the earth. He dug a big hole. It was 10ft deep and 20ft wide. He carried out the rocks and earth by hand and dumped it out by the front of the house.  

‘He put put planks of wood over the top of the hole. It took him two months to complete. He started in the morning and worked until evening. Doing this work got him in trouble with the authorities in charge of the gardens.’

It comes after German police finished their three day excavation of Brueckner’s old allotment in Hanover on Wednesday evening. 

The search team discovered dozens of items in a secret cellar under a long-demolished shed and took away samples of mud and soil for analysis.

Authorities have confirmed the operation was part of the Madeleine investigation but have not released many other details.

Gardeners in Braunschweig are expecting their site to become the next focus in the investigation. 

The woman who now owns the plot, Sabine Sellig, encouraged police to come and search it after seeing an appeal for information. 

She told local media: ‘I worry that I could be sleeping on top of the body of Madeleine McCann. I have a bad feeling about the place. I bought the plot from Christian Brueckner. There is something wrong about the house.’

Prosecutors in Braunschweig – who are handling the case because Brueckner’s last known address was there – would not comment on whether the second allotment would be searched like the Hanover one.

Neighbour Juergen Krumstroh said: ‘I believe the police will come soon and start digging up the garden for traces of Madeleine McCann, just like they did in Hanover.

‘Brueckner was a strange man. I was not close to him. Although I would drink a beer with him occasionally. Then one day he gave me a letter saying he wanted to give up the allotment and he left the next day.’   

Reporters for MailOnline visited the plot yesterday and found it covered with a lawn, bushes, plants, fruit trees and flowers. Old bikes and tools were propped up against the house, while a lawn-mower was at the foot of the garden path.

Brueckner – who is currently in jail in northern Germany – is suspected of killing Madeleine after she vanished in Portugal in May 2007. 

The girl, who was three at the time, went missing from her family’s holiday apartment in the Portuguese holiday resort of Praia da Luz on May 3, 2007, as her parents dined with friends at a nearby tapas bar.

Despite a huge international manhunt, no trace of her has been found, nor has anyone been charged over her disappearance.

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