Madeleine McCann search ends after police told to 'stand down'

Police in Portugal have said the Madeleine McCann search will end today after being told to 'stand down'.

A police source said: "The GNR has received instructions to stand down at 4 pm local time."

German police conducted their official major search of the remote reservoir in the Algarve on Tuesday (23 May).

The search was later extended by an extra day after authorities allegedly received a 'very credible' tip-off regarding the search at Barragem do Arade reservoir, located near the town of Silves - a spot prime suspect Christian Brueckner used to frequently visit.

The McCann search was originally set to last for at least two days, but officials disclosed it could have continued longer if anything of any importance was discovered.

Collect/Handout/Alamy Stock Photo

Since the search commenced, police have removed a number of bags from the man-made dam while investigators continued their search for any sign of the missing British girl, who disappeared at just three years old back in May 2007.

Police have begun photographing the excavation site near the banks of a remote reservoir in Portugal as the fresh McCann searches entered its third day.

Investigators previously announced they believed McCann was 'alive for two or three days' after she was taken.

The digging operation first commenced Wednesday afternoon (24 May) which saw heavy machinery cut through vast undergrowth at the site, while a mixture of uniformed and plain-clothed officers raked the ground located around 30 miles from where McCann first went missing in 2007.

Officers used shovels to excavate the area alongside sniffer dogs and pickaxes which have also been deployed over the course of the searches.

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The operation was being carried out at the request of German investigators who believed their prime suspect - convicted sex offender Brueckner, 45 - kidnapped and murdered the youngster.

He is currently 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.

German authorities have yet not revealed to the public what exactly triggered the latest search operation, but prosecutor for the city of Braunschweig, Christian Wolters, declared they were acting on the basis of 'certain tips'.

He went on to reveal the new information had not come from the suspect and they did not have a confession or 'any indication from the suspect of where it would make sense to search'.