Police use sniffer dogs in Madeleine McCann search

Police have combed the banks of a reservoir in Portugal with the help of sniffer dogs, rakes and pickaxes as part of the investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann

- MARGARET DAVIS

Emergency service divers were seen on a rigid-hull inflatable boat early yesterday morning at the Barragem do Arade – around 30 miles from Praia da Luz, where the three-year-old went missing in 2007.

Officers concentrated their search at one area of the reservoir – erecting white tents on a hill on its banks. Further around the water, emergency services and officials from Portugal, Germany and the UK were seen holding briefings near blue police tents.

In the search area, uniformed and plain-clothed officers spent a number of hours scouring the banks – hammering away at the ground with pickaxes and combing through small rocks with rakes and spades. A track leading to the search area was cordoned off with police tape and marked vehicles from Portugal’s National Republican Guard.

The new searches come as the Home Office granted an extra £110,000 in funding this financial year for the Metropolitan Police to assist with finding Madeleine, down from just over £300,000 last year. The total funding given to Operation Grange has been just under £13.1m since 2011.