After a three-day search effort drew to a close without any sign of a breakthrough, crime correspondent Amy-Clare Martin reports from Praia da Luz on the latest attempt to give the McCann family answe

The initial Portuguese investigation failed to preserve the scene adequately, so the opportunity to gather forensic evidence from Madeline McCann's room at the Ocean Club was lost. Long-term residents remember joining in uncoordinated and ad-hoc searches of the town.

Police have concluded their three-day search for Madeleine McCann. German and Portuguese police and firefighters have combed an area on the outskirts of Lagos in Portugal 18 years after the three-year-old British girl disappeared. With officers seen shaking hands and embracing at the end of the search, it closed the book on the £300,000 operation.