German police officers searching for clues relating to Madeleine McCann‘s disappearance found bone fragments and samples of clothing during a dig near the resort where she vanished, according to media reports.

Investigators launched fresh searches last week through Atalaia – a stretch of scrubland littered with rubbish and graffiti-covered buildings linked by a network of dusty tracks known in Portuguese as the Fisherman’s Trail.

Connecting Praia da Luz with the nearby town of Lagos, the track is a popular hiking route for tourists, but for four days last week it was cordoned off for members of the BKA – Germany‘s equivalent of the FBI – to conduct searches.

Sources close to the investigation said that ‘only animal bones and bits of old adult clothing’ have been found in the estimated £300,000 operation.

One officer told MailOnline: ‘We always knew it was going to be a waste of time but we have to show cooperation.

‘What did they expect to find after 18 years? We were happy to work with them but we knew it would be a waste of time.’

But Portuguese media claimed the search turned up enough material that investigators deemed worthy of further analysis at a laboratory.

‘During the search, several items were seized that will be examined further by the German police,’ reported CNN Portugal.

The materials will now be carefully analyzed in the police laboratory ‘to assess their potential relevance to the investigation’, according the newspaper Correio da Manha.

It comes as convicted rapist and paedophile Christian Brueckner – the man who German prosecutors believe was behind Madeleine’s disappearance – draws closer to his release from prison.

German police announced in 2020 that it had opened an investigation into Brueckner, 48, connecting him with Madeleine’s abduction and murder.

But he has not been charged – and the sands of time are running out.

He has vehemently denied the allegations.

Brueckner is serving a seven-year sentence for raping a 71-year-old woman, but is due for release in September and has already vowed to leave Germany.

It means prosecutors will have trouble bringing him to court should they find enough evidence to charge him in connection with Madeleine’s disappearance.

His earliest possible release date is September 17 – though his lawyer said he would have to pay €1,500 (£1,300) in outstanding fines from a series of motor offences to leave then.

Brueckner’s lawyer Philipp Marquort told MailOnline: ‘I haven’t had a chance to speak with him yet about the searches and I am not going to comment on what has been happening in Portugal.

‘What I will say is that I don’t think he will be coming out in September as he doesn’t have any money to pay the fines because it went on his legal fees, so I can’t see him leaving prison until early next year.

‘He will probably see the news on the TV in his cell and he will talk about it when he calls me next time but I still do think when he is freed he will leave Germany.’

Meanwhile, German prosecutors have been accused by Portuguese media of failing to properly investigate a claim that Madeleine was run over by a drunk driver.

Portuguese officers allegedly received a tip about a British man who was ‘covering up a dark secret’ about his German wife running over the young girl while drunk, then hiding the body.

But German authorities rejected a Portuguese request to use an undercover police officer to try to befriend the wife and firm up their suspicions, Correio da Manha claimed.

The report – which says a sister of the British husband made the tip-off to UK police in 2018 – said: ‘German prosecutors were asked to authorise a covert police operation with someone posing as a friend of the woman’s and trying to get her to confess, but the courts refused.

‘It was decided to continue solely with the investigation into suspect Christian Brueckner, rejecting other possibilities.’

Correio da Manha said the mystery couple were ‘alcoholics’ and the wife had been drinking near the Ocean Club on the night Madeleine went missing.

It also claimed the couple’s neighbour had told police she heard them having a row the day after the three-year-old disappeared.

She said she heard the man repeatedly yelling ‘Why did you bring her?’

Portuguese police are said to have got the knock-back from the Germans after urging them to look more closely into the possibility the ‘German wife’ had driven home ‘drunk’ with Madeleine after running her over, then enlisting her husband’s help in disposing the body at sea.