New search underway in Portugal for Madeleine McCann, the toddler missing since 2007

Police investigating the disappearance of British toddler Madeleine McCann searched near an abandoned rural building in southern Portugal on Tuesday as they launched fresh probes near the holiday resort where she was last seen 18 years ago.

German and Portuguese police have opened a new search for Madeleine McCann, whose disappearance almost two decades ago became the most high-profile unsolved police investigation in Europe.

Sightings of Madeleine, who was 3 at the time of her disappearance, were reported as far away as Australia, and the investigation grabbed worldwide attention and became the subject of books and documentaries.

Portuguese police said Monday that they were carrying out “a broad range” of searches this week in Lagos, southern Portugal at the request of German authorities.

Prosecutors in the northern German city of Braunschweig said in a statement Tuesday that “criminal proceedings are currently underway in Portugal as part of the investigation into the Madeleine McCann case.”