FORENSICS officers have begun probing an area of previously hidden ground during the search of scrubland close to where Madeleine McCann was last seen in Portugal seven years ago.
The area being searched is just 300 yards from the apartment where Madeleine was staying [PA/REUTERS]The area, which was covered by undergrowth until yesterday, has already been subject to fingertip searches by officers in Metropolitan Police uniforms.
Two white gazebo-style tents were put up and connected together to hide the scene from the TV crews and press watching from the other side of the nearby police cordon.
They placed it on top of a spot where a piece of corrugated iron was discovered beneath undergrowth yesterday.
The section of metal, which is understood to have covered up a void in the ground, was then taken away by officers.
Police have been using ground-penetrating radar equipment as they search the scrubland.
Sniffer dogs from South Wales Police that were used during the search for murdered schoolgirl April Jones in 2012 have also been seen bounding around the site.
It is believed that police have also been granted permission to investigate two others areas of land.
One of these is believed to be even closer to the holiday apartment where the McCann family were staying than the land currently being searched.
British police tape off an area of scrubland [PA]
[SOLARPIX]The area is around 300 yards from the Ocean Club resort apartment where Madeleine was staying with her family when she vanished in May 2007, aged three.
TV crews and journalists from around the world have gathered at the cordon as the search - seen as one of the biggest developments in the investigation in recent years - takes place.
Within hours of arriving at the scrubland near the sea in Praia da Luz yesterday, the Metropolitan Police team had identified key spots of interest and covered them with forensic tents.
The site is thought to have been chosen as the starting point of the operation because it is close to where a man was seen with a little girl in his arms on the night Madeleine disappeared.
An Irish family returning to their holiday apartment reported seeing the man, who has never been identified or come forward to clear his name.
The cold-case review by Scotland Yard has brought together detectives, forensic archaeologists and geologists using mechanical diggers, sniffer dogs from Britain and specialist radar equipment.
About a dozen Scotland Yard detectives, headed by Detective Chief Inspector Andy Redwood, flew from Heathrow to Faro in Portugal on Sunday.
Officers in discussion at the search area [PA]
Sniffer dogs used in the hunt for April Jones have been drafted in [EPA]Kate and Gerry have not been given any information that Madeleine is dead, and until this happens they have to believe she is still alive. But they think police will come up with some significant news. It is such a stressful time for them and my heart goe
The team arrived in a convoy of five vehicles, including two vans with British number plates, to the hillside site overlooking the Atlantic.
The site is about the size of three football pitches and is being guarded day and night by armed local police with dogs and others on horseback.
Mr and Mrs McCann, from Rothley, Leicestershire, have not travelled to Praia da Luz for the operation.
Their Portuguese lawyer Isabel Duarte yesterday said she believed police had “very good information” to be carrying out ground searches.
She said: “I do not know what it is, or even if Kate and Gerry are aware, but I believe there is data in the criminal file which has led to this operation because, if not, police wouldn’t be performing this very drastic task.
“Kate and Gerry have not been given any information that Madeleine is dead, and until this happens they have to believe she is still alive. But they think police will come up with some significant news. It is such a stressful time for them and my heart goes out to them.
“It has been so long, and the investigating officers now have new information and there may finally be some answers.”
Ms Duarte spoke to former GP Kate, 46, and heart specialist Gerry, 45, last week.
“I don’t need to ask them how they are feeling. It is very clear. But it is not for me to say if they fear the worst,” she said.
Officers search through the scrubland [AFP]
An officer moves equipment [GETTY]The unprecedented investigation by British police on foreign soil follows months of negotiations between Scotland Yard and Portuguese authorities.
All the work will be carried out under the watchful eye of police and officials from Portugal’s equivalent of the Crown Prosecution Service. British and Portuguese officers have been given an office in a civic building to use as a base.
A local police source said: “The Policia Judiciaria has the resources needed for this work but despite this they have preferred to bring all the technical resources from England, including archaeologists, sniffer dogs and a ground-penetrating radar. The Portuguese resources are pickaxes and a digger.”
The search has provoked anger among local business owners who fear it will drive away tourists. Other areas of interest include a site near the beach and roads by a church.
The estimated £6million cold-case review, codenamed Operation Grange, was set up in 2011 after David Cameron ordered a review of evidence.
The Met has refused to comment on its work, saying it will not provide a “running commentary” on the inquiry.
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