MADELEINE McCANN CASE BOMBSHELL BREAKTHROUGH

POLICE SEARCH A RESERVOIR FOR THE MISSING GIRL'S REMAINS

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Portuguese and German authorities have launched a major search for Madeleine McCann's body at a remote reservoir in Portugal, 16 years after the 3-year-old went missing. Police have already begun digging in the Barragem do Arade reservoir near Silves, about 45 minutes from the Ocean Club apartment in Praia da Luz where Madeleine disappeared while on holiday with her parents and siblings in 2007.

"Portuguese police will offer logistic support but the initiative is German and they were the ones that requested the work that is going to take place," an insider said of the international operation. "Scotland Yard officers are due to travel to Portugal but theirs will be a watching brief."

While the reservoir was the location of a sighting days after Madeleine vanished, with a woman handing a child matching her description to a mystery man, it is still unknown what evidence sparked this renewed search. German police reportedly sought permission to search the dam in an official judicial request to Portugal after concluding it was an "area of interest" amid their investigation into main suspect Christian Brueckner.