London: Portuguese police sources have confirmed to the Observer that a number of suspects identified by Scotland Yard detectives will be arrested “in the very near future” over the disappearance seven years ago of Madeleine McCann (pictured).
Police confirmed that “several people” had been identified by the London Metropolitan police (Met), who have had officers and two sniffer dogs in the Algarve all week searching a large area of scrubland close to the holiday apartment where the McCann family were staying when the three-year-old disappeared in May 2007. The search of that particular area, Portuguese police source said, would end today and shift to another area.
It has been six months since the initial request by the Met for access to “three prime suspects” for questioning, although it is believed that as many as eight could be on the interview list. They would be the first significant arrests in the case. The three are thought to be burglars who may have carried out raids in the holiday resort and live locally, although the Portuguese would not say whether the men had criminal records.
The development comes after a cold-case review by British officers and involved the painstaking examination of hundreds of phone records from the area on the night the toddler vanished from her bed as her parents ate supper with friends at a nearby restaurant.
On Friday, officers in Met uniform were seen studying a flat area of ground at the opposite end of the area. They had previously focused on a hole covered in undergrowth. Forensics officers sifted through soil in large sieves inside a white tent set up to cover the void but nothing of interest has been found. The Guardian
