Portuguese police are believed to have searched wells close to the hotel where the McCanns stayed (Picture: Solarpix)
Police have reportedly searched wells as part of their investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.
Divers in the Algarve region are believed to have examined three disused wells in Vila do Bispo for eight hours on Thursday.
The area is around 10 miles from the Praia da Luz resort, where Madeleine disappeared on May 3, 2007.
Multiple investigators were at the scene with specialist diving equipment to examine the wells, with the largest thought to be more than 13 metres deep, The Mirror reports.
The wells are a 20 minute drive west of Praia da Luz where she vanished in May 2007 (Picture: Solarpix)
Madeleine McCann was three years old when she disappeared in May 2007 (Picture: PA)
According to the paper, Madeleines parents Kate and Gerry McCann have not been told on what grounds authorities searched the wells.
It was also reported the search sites are near a beach where suspect Christian Brueckners camper van was photographed in 2007.
The investigation into Madeleines disappearance was renewed in June after German authorities announced they were investigating Brueckner, a convicted German child sex offender.
Brueckner is known to have lived on the Algarve coast and his Portuguese mobile phone received a half-hour phone call in Praia da Luz around an hour before Madeleine went missing 13 years ago.
Christian Brueckner, 43, a convicted German paedophile, has been identified as a suspect (Picture: Rex)
This picture was taken near Boco Do Rio Beach where Christian Brueckner lived in his camper van (Picture: Solarpix)
He is in jail in Germany for drug dealing, and is appealing against a conviction for the 2005 rape of a 72-year-old woman, also at Praia da Luz.
He has not yet spoken to investigators, who say they are convinced that he has committed other sex attacks.
Thursdays searches come after Kate and Gerry McCann denied receiving a letter from German investigators stating there is evidence or proof Madeleine is dead.
The pair posted a statement on the Find Madeleine website last month to deny the reported claims, saying that the news caused unnecessary anxiety to friends and family and once again disrupted our lives.
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The couple also said that they do not have a family spokesman, and are not actively paying any lawyers to represent them.
German prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters, who is leading the investigation into the main suspect in Madeleines disappearance, told the PA news agency that a letter had been written to the couple, but would not reveal what it said.
Mr Wolters said prosecutors have concrete evidence, but not forensic evidence that Madeleine was killed by the suspect and may know more than Scotland Yard, who are still treating the case as a missing person investigation.
The Metropolitan Police maintain their active investigation into Madeleines disappearance, Operation Grange, is a missing person inquiry as there is no definitive evidence whether Madeleine is alive or dead.
In the days after the renewed appeal, Scotland Yard said they received hundreds of tips to their Operation Grange team.
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