A new site has been cordoned off as detectives continue their investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann. 
 
 Land south of a water treatment plant near Praia da Luz is being searched 
 
 :: Click here for the latest on this story as police search a third site 
 
 The land just outside the resort of Praia da Luz, in the Algarve, was taped off by Portuguese police early this morning ahead of the British team's arrival. 
 
 Within an hour, British police were back out on the ground and searching the new area, which lies on the road between Praia da Luz and the town of Lagos and sits behind a water treatment plant. 
 
 Police sniffer dogs from South Wales Police were out on the land this morning and then search teams formed a line and systematically searched the ground with sticks. 
 
 Local handyman Candido Furtado told Sky News: "I can't understand why they are searching here, On this land they will only find bones from buried horses and donkeys. 
 
 "I have always worked here and I never seen anything suspicious or any disturbed ground." 
 
 Madeleine vanished from a holiday apartment in the resort in May 2007 while her parents Gerry and Kate dined with friends nearby. 
 
 The couple from Rothley, Leicestershire, said last week: "We are kept updated on the ongoing work in Portugal and are encouraged by the progress." 
 
 The new searches come after the initial scrubland site in Praia da Luz was wound down on Sunday evening. 
 
 Specialist teams had scoured the ground for seven days using radar equipment, police sniffer dogs and forensic archaeologists, but it is not thought that they found anything of significance to the investigation. 
 
 One police officer told Sky News as he left the site that the new searches would be "more of the same". 
 
 Portuguese police sources have said a series of suspects will be questioned in the near future once the searches have concluded. 
 
 Scotland Yard has refused to reveal what intelligence led them to the search areas or to give any updates on their progress. 

 Media caption The BBC's Tom Burridge reports from the scene of Wednesday's searches 
 
 Police investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann have completed their search of three sites near the Algarve holiday resort of Praia da Luz. 
 
 Portuguese and British officers were seen shaking hands with each other, and taking down a police cordon. 
 
 Police sources have confirmed to the BBC that Wednesday's searches have now been completed. 
 
 Madeleine was three when she went missing in Praia da Luz in May 2007. 
 
 The BBC's Tom Burridge, in Praia da Luz, said he saw police appearing to be saying their goodbyes to each other. 
 
 After the physical search is over, Portuguese police are due to question "several suspects" who are described as of interest in the case. 
 
 Earlier on Wednesday, police used bolt cutters to open gates to get into the 15-acre grounds of a property, which made up the third search site. 
 
 Officers also spent three hours searching an area of grassy land about 15 minutes' walk from Praia da Luz - which was the second area they have searched in the past 10 days. 
 
 Two dogs, from South Wales Police, were seen with their handlers inside the second search site, where officers concentrated on a smaller area marked out with police tape. 
 
 'Several suspects' 
 
 Yellow and white police tape had earlier been stretched around the area and had been guarded by armed local police. 
 
 The area included a plot of land with vegetables growing in the middle and a number of dilapidated outbuildings around it. 
 
 The BBC understands the land is owned by a construction company based near the Portuguese capital Lisbon and has been left as scrubland after permission to build on it was turned down. 
 
 A source said Portuguese police had searched the land in 2007 - after Madeleine disappeared - and had visited the site "four or five times". 
 
 It comes after a week-long search of another site - a 15-acre area of scrubland in Praia da Luz - was completed at the weekend and police cordons were removed on Sunday night. 
 
 Image caption UK police searched the second site, outside Praia da Luz, using sniffer dogs 
 
 Image caption The site is around 15 minutes' walk from Praia da Luz, where Madeleine went missing in May 2007 
 
 Portuguese police have said nothing of interest was found during last week's search. However, they announced "several suspects" were likely to be interviewed in the "very near future". 
 
 UK police had already asked authorities if they could speak to three "people of interest", the BBC understands. 
 
 'Encouraged' 
 
 British officers will be allowed to sit in, but cannot intervene in proceedings, Portuguese officials have said. 
 
 The search resumed on Wednesday after a two-day pause because of a Portuguese national holiday. 
 
 A variety of techniques, including the use of ground-penetrating radar and sniffer dogs, have already been employed by the team of officers from Portugal and the UK. 
 
 Image caption The search moved from a 15-acre area of scrubland in Praia da Luz, which was the focus last week 
 
 Image caption The search is continuing after Portuguese police announced "several suspects" are to be interviewed 
 
 It is the most significant police activity in Praia da Luz since Madeleine went missing seven years ago. 
 
 Her parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, had been eating dinner with friends a short distance away when the three-year-old disappeared from their Ocean Club holiday apartment. 
 
 The McCanns, from Rothley, Leicestershire, have said they have been "encouraged" by the progress made by police. 
 
 The search in Praia da Luz comes after the Met launched a fresh investigation into Madeleine's disappearance last July, codenamed Operation Grange. 

 British and Portuguese police switch search to new area of scrubland on outskirts of Praia da Luz 
 
 Police sources have told the Guardian that the search on a second site in the Algarve resort of Praia da Luz has been terminated without any relevant finds in the investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann. 
 
 A new site has now been cordoned off across the road from where searches took place on Wednesday morning, and detectives are to scour this area. 
 
 British detectives have until Friday to conclude ground searches. But police sources told the Guardian that searches could end as early as Wednesday evening, should there be no relevant discoveries. 
 
 No further ground searches are planned, sources said. 
 
 Police sources added: "Several suspects are set to be questioned in the near future, but this will definitely not take place this week or the beginning of next," suggesting that they would probably occur within the next two to three weeks. 
 
 "The timing will depend entirely on PJ police and no clear date or location have been scheduled for interrogations," they said. 
 
 Across from the site, graffiti in big red letters has been scrawled across a wall, stating: "Polícia inglesa estupidos" (stupid English police) with Madeleine's name written alongside it, but spelt as "Meddi". 
 
 Specialist teams spent last week investigating an area of land a few minutes' walk from the Ocean Club resort, where Madeleine was staying with her family in May 2007 when she disappeared, aged three.
– British and Portuguese police involved in the renewed search for Madeleine McCann have moved onto a second area of scrubland near the Praia da Luz resort where she disappeared in 2007. Detectives are particularly focused on one area about the size of a tennis court, the Guardian reports. The entire area cordoned off this morning is about a third the size of the 15-acre site they searched last week; a third site is also scheduled to be dug up this week. The weeklong search of the first area concluded Sunday, and though there were reports of a hidden shaft and a grave-like hole being found, police sources say nothing of interest was uncovered. The second search is expected to conclude no later than Friday. Authorities are doing some digging in the second area, which is behind a water treatment plant, and sniffer dogs have also been brought in, Sky News reports. It's an "overgrown grassy patch," with a few run-down outbuildings surrounding it, about a 15-minute walk from the Algarve resort, the BBC reports. But sources say Portuguese police have searched the area before, and locals don't seem convinced the new investigation will do much good: Graffiti reading "Polícia inglesa estupidos," or "stupid English police," was written on a wall across from the site, and one local handyman says all the investigators will find are "bones from buried horses and donkeys." In the meantime, several suspects are due to be questioned.