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Police in Portugal
are investigating an anonymous letter and a map claiming to show where missing
four-year-old Madeleine McCann's body is buried.
The letter, sent to Dutch paper De Telegraaf,
identifies an area 15km (9.3 miles) from where Madeleine vanished.
It strongly resembles another letter sent to the same newspaper last year,
accurately pinpointing where two missing Belgian girls were buried.
Ch Insp Olegario de Sousa
said officers were "checking the information".
Around eight plain-clothed police officers visited the village of Arao, which is 15km from
Praia da Luz, on Wednesday evening.
It is understood that a formal request was made to a section of the police
called the GNR to carry out searches in the area.
They spent an hour and 20 minutes looking at fields and the surrounding area
ahead of possible searches on Thursday morning.
'Everything necessary'
The Madeleine letter pinpoints a dirt track north of Odiaxere
in the Algarve,
according to De Telegraaf.
The paper said that the letter claims Madeleine, of Rothley, Leicestershire, is
buried "north of the road under branches and rocks, around six to seven
metres off the road".
Beside a cross and two question marks, the sender has written "vermoedelijke vindplaats
Madeleine" - the place where Madeleine can probably be found.
Portuguese police would not confirm whether they had begun searching the area.
But Mr Sousa confirmed Portuguese police were aware of the map and were doing
"everything necessary".
He said: "There have been exchanges between Dutch police and us.
"The information indicated an area 15km from the place of the
disappearance of the little child. It is not far from Praia da
Luz. We are checking the information like we check everything in this case for
importance."
Asked if a search would include digging, he replied: "If the information
gives us a precise location where we can look, we will do it."
Tip-off letter
The BBC's Caroline Hawley said it was difficult to assess the reliability of
the map, given that Portuguese detectives had received hundreds of tip-offs
which have not proved useful in the course of the investigation.
Officers also reported that the map was vague, she added.
Dutch police are studying similarities between the new letter and one received
by De Telegraaf pointing to the whereabouts of
Belgian step-sisters Stacey Lemmens, seven, and
Nathalie Mahy, 10.
The girls were murdered in June 2006 after they disappeared from a late-night
fair in the town of Liege.
On the day that the letter was received, police found their bodies at the spot
indicated on an enclosed map.
A convicted paedophile, Abdullah Ait Oud, is now on
remand awaiting trial for murder.
The Telegraaf believes the letter comes from the same
sender because the phrase "vermoedelijke vindplaats" was also used in the tip-off letter last
year about Stacey and Nathalie, BBC correspondent Alix
Kroeger added.
Madeleine disappeared while on holiday with her parents in Praia da Luz on 3 May.
It is believed she was abducted from a holiday apartment while her parents ate
at a nearby restaurant.
Her parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, have travelled across Europe
in an effort to find her.
The couple were also featured in an appeal for information on BBC One's Crimewatch.
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