German police looking for Madeleine McCann’s body are set to begin a major search of a remote Algarve reservoir that suspect Cristian Brueckner previously visited.

Officials are soon expected to start closing off roads leading to the man-made Barragem do Arade reservoir near the town of Silves, ahead of the official start of the search on Tuesday. 

Scotland Yard detectives are understood to have travelled to the area, but will only have a “watching brief”.

The search is due to last for at least two days, and will continue beyond that if anything of relevance is found.

It will be the first major operation of its kind since June 2014, when British police were given permission to undertake digs in Praia da Luz involving sniffer dogs trained in detecting bodies, and ground-penetrating radar.