NEW SEARCH FOR MADDIE

Fresh exploration was requested by German cops Three-day hunt set to cover private plots of land

- TOM PETTIFOR, MARTIN FRICKER and GERARD COUZENS

FRESH police searches are due to start in Portugal today near the spot where Madeleine McCann disappeared.

Madeleine was just three years old when she vanished from her mum and dad's holiday apartment in Praia da Luz in May 2007.

German detectives are said to have requested the work, expected to take place between the apartment where she was last seen and a house on the edge of town where prime suspect, Christian Brückner, used to live.

The three-day search will cover privately owned plots of land near to the ramshackle rented cottage, sources said.

It will also extend from the house eastwards towards an inland area known as Atalaia in the direction of Lagos.

One source said: "The search will take place on 21 privately owned pieces of land which in some cases are open and not fenced off.

"Wells, ruins and water storage tanks will be searched." Another said: "Around 30 German police officers have already arrived in Portugal and will be starting the search tomorrow.

"Portuguese police will also be on the ground." It is not clear if detectives are acting on a new tip-off about where Madeleine's body could be.

It will be the first major search for her in two years.