Madeleine McCann search latest: Animal bones among limited findings as police hunt ends in Praia da Luz

Amy-Clare Martin reports from Praia da Luz:

Holidaymakers from across Europe were sunbathing by the pool inside the Ocean Club resort on Thursday, most blissfully unaware of the grim search efforts ongoing nearby.

After almost two decades of media scrutiny as her unsolved disappearance has continued to make worldwide headlines, staff at the whitewashed complex said they were unable to comment on the investigation.

Eric Hoffman, 78, told The Independent he had no idea he was staying at the infamous spot where Maddy vanished when he booked a two week holiday from Switzerland.

“We were surprised, we know of the case from the papers but we didn’t know before we booked that it was this building,” he said. Asked about the latest searches, he added: “It’s quite difficult now to find something because it’s been so long.”

Amy-Clare Martin reports from Portugal:

In Praia da Luz, Many locals have their own theories about what happened to Madeleine McCann, who vanished from a holiday apartment at Ocean Club resort while her parents had dinner nearby 18 years ago.

And as a new three-day search led by German authorities appeared to wind down on Thursday, many expressed their frustration at “the case that won’t go away”.

British expat Julia Newbould, 79, has lived in the town for 40 years after emigrating from Sheffield.

“Everybody’s fed up with it – I have spoken to people of different ages and different nationalities, and everybody is feeling the same,” she told The Independent.

“It’s the case that won’t go away. It was terrible at first. People stopped coming and cancelled their holidays, it was devastating.

She isn’t surprised that the search teams, who have been using ground penetrating radar and a digger to scour derelict farm buildings near where suspect Christian Brueckner used to live, appear to have found little evidence connected to Madeleine’s disappearance after all this time.

“They won’t find anything because the ground is rock hard,” she said. “But they just keep bringing it up and bringing it up.”

Dozens of investigators spent three days scouring scrubland in the Algarve for evidence of Madeleine McCann’s disappearance.

As the third day of the search for evidence in that 18-year-old mystery of Madeleine McCann’s disappearance drew to a close, German and Portuguese investigators congratulated and embraced each other.

The latest search for evidence in the case wound down on Thursday in Atalaia, not far from Praia da Luz, the last place Madeleine was seen alive.

The search effort focused on a 120-acre swathe of land covered in scrub and abandoned farm buildings.

Searchers used everything from a JCB and drones to shovels, pickaxes and their hands to search the vast area in 29C heat.

On Thursday evening, after the Augustiner beers were carried away, some officers struggled to grapple with the tents they were taking down because of the blustery conditions.

A three-day search for Madeleine McCann failed to bear fruit and was brought to a close by German police on Thursday afternoon.

Media flocked to Praia da Luz, the charming Algarve resort where Maddie went missing, amid hopes that authorities had found a lead in where the girl’s body could be.

Police used ground penetrating radar and a digger to scour derelict farm buildings near where suspect Christian Brueckner used to live, reported The Independent’s crime correspondent Amy-Clare Martin, who was on the scene.

Images showed as authorities scoured bushes in the area, discovering animal bones among other findings which have not appeared to bring answers any closer.

As the search finally came to a close, teams of German and Portuguese police officers were seen shaking hands and embracing following a debrief and started to pack up a tent at their base in the 120-acre search site in Atalaia, which was once home to a farming community, Amy-Clare Martin reported.

One team member was seeing carrying a crate of German beer.

German police investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann launched a major new search in Portugal this week.

Madeleine disappeared in 2007 while on holiday with her family in the resort of Praia da Luz. She vanished from a bedroom in a holiday apartment complex while her parents were out for dinner with friends a short walk away.

The subsequent search for the missing girl became one of the highest-profile unsolved missing person cases in the world.