EXCLUSIVE PICS: The Maddie search site where cops hope to find vital clues to finally charge German Christian Brueckner

By Jon Clarke in Praia da Luz

THESE are the first pics of police working at the initial search site for the body of missing Madeleine McCann in Portugal.

Taken by the Olive Press on the Algarve yesterday afternoon, they show the nerve centre for the four-day probe as well as an additional Portuguese police support tent.

Approximately halfway between Praia da Luz, where Maddie went missing in 2007, and nearby Lagos, police blocked off a series of dirt tracks and sealed off a large 50 hectare size area from around 3pm.

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Teams of police arrived in unmarked white vans and rental cars, while the bosses arrived in black Range Rovers.

The first search location is in the local area of Ataleia, where prime suspect German Christian Brueckner regularly spent time.

As well as working at the local Boavista golf club he also commuted daily to work at bars and restaurants in nearby Lagos.

The area of scrubland, about three kilometres from Praia da Luz, is scattered with isolated farms and dozens of ruins.

Portuguese police – who are working under the German BKA – confirmed they had registered a total of 21 separate properties to search between June 2 and 6.

READ MORE: EXCLUSIVE: As the trial of Maddie suspect Christian Brueckner re-starts – and she would have been 21 this month – JON CLARKE traces his suspicious movements through Spain and Portugal in May 2007

Dedicated search teams started to arrive at 7.00am this morning ready to scour the area.

An Olive Press source revealed: “It’s going to be a great show.

“The area is scattered with ruins, wells, cisterns and other good places to hide a dead body.

“It’s a real wasteland and who knows what we might find.”

The search comes after a tip off to BKA headquarters in Wiesbaden since 2018, when they began probing Brueckner over the crime.

The Policia Judiciaria, which has led the hunt since Maddie vanished in 2007, confirmed the request to search the area was made by German authorities.

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The Olive Press understands they have made numerous other requests for further searches in Portugal but without agreement.

The last search involved divers and up to 100 police at inland Arade lake two years ago.

Police focussed on a lake camp where Brueckner regularly spent time to ‘cleanse himself’.

He called it his ‘paradise’ when he was looking to be alone.

While detectives found various fragments of material they were ‘too degraded’ to be able to offer any DNA link to missing Madeleine.