Police using sniffer dogs today began scouring an area of scrubland close to where Madeleine McCann vanished in a fresh hunt for clues. 

A team of officers were also combing the wasteland on foot, some looking for signs of disturbed earth using radar equipment.

The search, in the Portuguese resort of Praia da Luz, is one of the most significant developments in the hunt for Madeleine.

Officers began work this morning, led by Scotland Yard, which has launched a new investigation into her disappearance seven years ago.

Scotland Yard detectives and Portuguese police work together at the scene

Two sniffer dogs accompanied by British handlers spent around five minutes on a flat area of scrubland, at the bottom of a slope. 

The “victim detection dogs” also helped in the seven-month search for murdered five-year-old April Jones in Wales last year.   

Trained by South Wales Police, the seven-year-old English springer spaniels are able to sniff out human remains in difficult terrain.  A handler from South Wales Police was heard shouting instructions to the dogs, called Tito and Muzzy, in Welsh.

A sniffer dog scours for clues with its handler

They were then taken away out of sight, while around 10 officers stood around in discussion. 

A South Wales Police spokeswoman said: “Our officers are working as part of a small team of British police officers, led by the Metropolitan Police Service in conjunction with the Portuguese authorities.”

Two local officers on horseback patrolled the scene, while another pair walked around the site with German shepherd dogs.

A number of small blue tents were erected inside the cordon and around six Portuguese police vans could be seen on top of a mound in the middle of the scrubland, which overlooks the sea.

The land is a few minutes’ walk from the Ocean Club resort apartment where the McCann family were staying in May 2007 when Madeleine disappeared, aged three.

It has reportedly been marked out because it is in the direction of a spot where a suspect was seen walking with a little girl in his arms on the night of the toddler’s disappearance.

It is understood that a British team of specialist forensic archaeologists are also working on the site.

Expert Rom Gostomski, who runs the ground-penetrating radar department for Sandberg in London, said the dry earth in Portugal would help the search team pick up signals from far deeper than is possible in the UK.

“The radar uses electro-magnetic waves that are fired into the sub-surface at a pretty rapid rate and we measure what comes back from those signals,” he told Sky News.

“In a dry country like Portugal you’ll generally get much, much better data and penetrate much deeper. If you have got a buried object that is sufficiently different, with different properties from the surrounding area, it will show up clearly.”

A police team searches the area of scrubland in the Algarve

Following an assessment of the land using radar equipment, picks will be used to start excavations and diggers will be brought in if they are needed to probe deeper underground.

The site, which has previously been used to grow cabbages, is the size of at least three football pitches. The ground is hard and densely covered with bushes and thick grass.

The area was searched before, when Madeleine vanished. The latest effort comes after negotiations between Scotland Yard and Portuguese authorities.

After work is completed, officers will move on to two other sites in the resort, including another area of scrubland nearby and roads close to Our Lady Of The Light church, where Madeleine’s parents prayed after she vanished.

Portuguese police have also re-opened their inquiry into Madeleine’s disappearance but, while they are working with the UK force, they have refused to set up an official joint investigation.

 

One line of inquiry for Scotland Yard is the possibility that a lone male paedophile staged a series of sex attacks on young British girls while they were on holiday in the Algarve.

 

Police are looking at nine sexual assaults and three “near misses” on British girls aged six to 12 between 2004 and 2006, including one in 2005 on a 10-year-old girl in Praia da Luz.

 

Hundreds of people have already contacted police in response to appeals for help finding the attacker.

 

Madeleine’s parents Kate, 46, and Gerry McCann, 45, have not travelled to Portugal but are being kept informed by Scotland Yard during a “stressful time for them”.

 

“They understandably have to remain positive and assume Madeleine is alive, but the dig raises the possibility of finding evidence that she is not,” a source close to the couple said.

 

Scotland Yard refused to comment on the search.