Madeleine McCann investigators were searching remote Algarve spot for a stolen ... trends now

Investigators searching a reservoir for clues in the Madeleine McCann case have been looking for a gun and camcorder stolen from prime suspect Christian Brueckner's house.

A criminal informer tipped off German prosecutors that items taken in the 2007 raid at Brueckner's isolated home were then thrown into the reservoir.

Police are desperate to find the video camera as they believe it may contain images of Madeleine, but also of other sex attacks Brueckner is said to have carried out on at least two unidentified women.

The informer has backed up information from key witnesses Manfred Seyferth and another man called Helge Busching, who have already told German investigators they broke into the house while Brueckner was in jail.

Seyferth said the pair had found a gun and a video camera at the isolated house in Floral where Brueckner lived, a few miles from the reservoir at Silves on Portugal's Algarve, the focus of the latest police search.

Investigators have been combing the shores of the reservoir rather than searching under the water, as it is considerably lower than usual due to lack of rain.

Germans Seyferth and Busching were living on the Algarve at the same time as Brueckner and the two were involved in petty theft with him before having a falling out.

Footage on the video camera was said to show Brueckner torturing and raping an American woman, with footage of a girl around 15 years old also subjected to the same horrific ordeal.

In 2019 Brueckner was convicted by a German court of the rape of an elderly American woman in her home at Praia da Luz close to where Madeleine vanished, and was given a seven-year sentence.

It is not known if this is the same woman on the missing video tape but investigators are keen to track it down to build up a more damning case against Brueckner.

A source close to the investigation told MailOnline:'Both men have told the BKA (German investigation police) they broke into Brueckner's home.

'They had all been part of a network of petty criminals in the Algarve back in the early 2000s around the time Madeleine went missing but then fell out.

'Seyferth has told police that he and Busching found a video camera and a gun at the house after they broke in.

'When the video camera was played that said it showed a masked man carrying out a sex attack on a woman and the voice they heard was Brueckner's.

'Seyferth said a gun was also found and that after finding the video camera they panicked, drove off and later threw both items in the lake.

'Seyferth has told investigators the material on the video tape was evil and if this can be found will be vital to building a case against Brueckner.

'Now another witness has come forward to confirm the story of the first two men and this has prompted intensification of the investigation.'

Last year police in Germany charged Brueckner with a variety of historical sex crimes including rapes against two unidentified women and Irish tour guide Hazel Behan between 2000 and 2006.

Meanwhile, Portuguese and German police left the scene this afternoon. In a sign that the search was over, blue tents that had been set up earlier this week were dismantled and packed away.

Officers could be seen shuttling back and forth packing tables and chairs and carrying them to vans.

While a truck used to empty portable toilets also arrived at a forward operating area that had been set up near the investigation site.

The last vehicles to leave were the German registered black Mercedes vans belonging to the BKA investigative police.

Sources close to the investigation said that material found at the scene, mainly soil samples, would be taken back to Germany for analysis.

Forensic biologist Dr. Mark Benecke told German media: 'Soil samples contain stones, pollen and a few other small components that can be transmitted during an act.'

'This means that if I find old shoes, for example, that now contain exactly the same components as in the earth, I know the person was there.'

He added that traces of textile fibres, pebbles or pollen could still be used even centuries later.

He told RTL:'The only question is whether no one walked around there and left other traces that disturb the whole thing.

'If other people celebrated at that point, maybe urinated, vomited, somehow left their own skin, then of course it will be more difficult.'

Meanwhile German proscutor Hans Christian Wolters told MailOnline:'We will see how successful we were after the search is complete.

'If necessary, we will then issue a short press release in the coming week. But that also depends on the result of the action.

'If we don't find anything, we will certainly tell you quickly.. If there were any finds, this would probably not be possible.'

Just before 1.30pm local time there was a noticeable increase in activity as machinery and equipment brought to the search site was driven away.

A large rotavator used for cutting away thick bushes and shrubs was seen being driven away on a trailer along with strimmers, wheelbarrows, pick axes and spades.

A driver in one truck shouted 'Finito' as he made his way back up the dirt track from the reservoir leading to the main road.

It comes as shameless former police detective Goncalo Amaral slammed the current search for McCann as an attempt to 'pin the case' on the prime suspect.

Amaral was kicked off the original investigation in 2008, after suggesting Madeleine's parents Kate and Gerry were responsible for the then three-year-old's disappearance and later wrote two books on the mystery.

Speaking for the first time since police began searching the area around the Arade Dam, just 35 miles from the resort of Praia da Luz, he claimed the fresh hunt was just an attempt to make prime suspect Christian Brueckner a 'scapegoat'.

He told respected Portuguese news weekly Sabado: 'The question should be how are the German police involved ? How did the (Portuguese) Judicial Police agree to this and why?

'In simple analysis I see that there is no new investigation, what is happening is an act of building the profile of a scapegoat and a virtual blaming.'

He then suggested the search was an attempt to show the public 'Brueckner must be guilty' as a lot of ' time, money and human hours have been invested'.

When asked what would be found he said: 'If there was anything there, it would be possible to find bones, perhaps hair and even part of the missing girl's pyjamas.

'On the other hand, finding the child's remains would only be possible if she had not been cremated, as seems to have happened.'

In the interview, which came as a joint police team from Portugal, Germany and the Metropolitan Police continued their hunt for a third day, Amaral again pushed his theory Brueckner was a 'convenient scapegoat'.

He said:' When British police began to consider Christian Brueckner as a suspect, he was living in Portugal and walking freely around.

'The investigation should have focused on the individual through special techniques, namely telephone and computer interceptions, personal and electronic surveillance, undercover agents etc, in order to advance the investigation of the suspect's possible responsibility and subsequent death of the child.

'But astonishingly, the German police put him in a German jail, isolating him from the outside world, making any kind of investigation centred on the suspect impossible.

'Little by little, the Germans built up the suspect's profile as a rapist, paedophile and murderer, gathering similar Portuguese cases, accusing him of them, and then the great moment came and they named him to the world.

'In concussion they did not allow a professional and serious investigation and made this individual a scapegoat as a suspect without any evidence or proof.'

Amaral ended his interview by claiming the case was being pushed by senior figures and said:' If the political pressures end, this case will end and there will be answers.'

Last year the McCanns lost a lengthy 13-year court battle against Amaral for the claims he made in his two books which shamelessly suggested they had been involved in her disappearance.

Amaral's 2008 book Maddie: The Truth About The Lie, implicated the McCanns in their daughter's abduction and accused them of hiding her body.

Their fight took him to the European Court of Human rights and it rumbled on for years before coming to an end last September.

Their lawyers argued that the Portuguese authorities had breached their right to respect for a private and family life in the way the court in Lisbon dealt with their libel claim against Amaral.

Initially they had won their case in 2015 and Amaral was ordered to pay 500,000 euros in damages but he appealed and the case was overturned and eventually thrown out by the Portuguese supreme court in 2017.

It was then that Kate and Gerry decided to take the case to the ECHR in Strasbourg but judges there ruled against them and they later issued a statement saying they were 'naturally disappointed' with the ruling.

Meanwhile in another interview with Portuguese outlet Renascenca, Amaral even outrageously claimed detectives had contacted the factory where Madeleine's pyjamas had been made, hinting this could be used to plant evidence against Brueckner.

He said how investigators had 'these pyjamas from the factory that produced them and they were now in the hands of English authorities'.

Amaral controversially went on:' I don't know under what conditions the pyjamas are kept and what could happen to them

'The parents and friends cannot be held responsible so a scapegoat is needed and here it is. The Germans just want to prove that this individual has something to do with the case.'

He also blasted the German investigation that saw Brueckner convicted of the 2005 rape of an elderly American woman in Praia da Lux and for which he was jailed for seven years in 2019.

Amaral said:'The gynecological examination carried out at the Portimão Hospital, on the night the alleged crime took place, shows that there was no rape.

'The individual is convicted for something that did not exist. The sheets, etc., were also collected from the woman's house and nothing was found that had traces of this German.'

Brueckner was convicted after DNA was found on the sheets but he insists this was because he had stroked the victim's cat and they had been transferred onto the bedclothes.

Meanwhile police continued with their search this morning at the reservoir that has been a focus of activity since Tuesday and is expected to finish later today.

Teams of officers wearing face coverings arrived to carry on digging through soil at a picnic spot on the western edge of the reservoir where prime suspect Brueckner, 45, is said to have parked his campervan.

Brueckner visited the Barragem do Arade reservoir, possibly with others, 'some days' after Madeleine was snatched from her bed in 2007, the suspect's former friend told police. 

The source also claimed that investigators also believe Madeleine could have been alive for two or three days after she disappeared from the holiday resort of Praia da Luz, reports The Times.

It comes as the search of the site, which Brueckner referred to as a 'little piece of paradise' and is located 30 miles from where Madeleine was taken, enters its third and final day.

A no fly zone out in for two days ended at 10pm on Wednesday night and according to the website of the Portuguese civil aviation authority had not been renewed suggesting the search would be ending.

Portuguese media is reporting that so far no significant discoveries have been made but that a press conference is planned when the operation eventually ends.

While the focus of the search is on finding clues about Madeleine's disappearance, investigators are hoping to find evidence of other potential victims who are believed to have been targeted by convicted sex offender Brueckner on the Algarve. 

The search was ordered by prosecutors in Germany, who say they have 'credible information' linking Brueckner to the site promoting speculation they are looking for clothes or remains.

Officials are said to be looking for fragments of clothing and old rags that could be related to Madeleine's disappearance - particularly the pink pyjamas she was wearing the night she vanished.

The reservoir is located near the town of Silves, where a lorry driver had claimed to see a woman passing off a child resembling Maddie's description to a man two days after the toddler disappeared. 

The hunt is focusing on the foreshore as the water level in the reservoir is considerably lower due to low rainfall last few months. This may explain why no divers have been seen operating in the area although they are on standby.

Madeleine was aged three in May 2007 when she vanished from her bedroom in

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