The parents of Madeleine McCann have been left “on tenterhooks” as Portuguese authorities renewed their investigation into her disappearance, a source said.
Police and divers have reportedly been searching wells in the Algarve region, 16km west of where Madeleine was last seen in May 2007, The Mirror reported.
Multiple investigators were at the site on Thursday with specialist diving equipment to examine the wells, with the largest thought to be more than 13 metres deep.
According to the outlet, Madeleine’s parents Kate and Gerry McCann have not been informed on what grounds authorities searched the wells.
“Kate and Gerry are being kept informed of what they need to know but police have not been given them all the full details,” a source said.
“They remain on tenterhooks during this time and it causes them more anguish.
“They still have absolutely no idea if their daughter is dead or alive and what police believe happened to her.”
It was also reported the scene is near a beach where suspect Christian Brueckner’s camper van was photographed in 2007.
The search had been prompted by information from the German police and Scotland Yard’s Operation Grange investigation, Correio da Manha reported.
German authorities announced in June they were investigating Brueckner, a convicted child sex offender. He is currently in prison in Germany for drug dealing, and is appealing against a conviction for the 2005 rape of a 72-year-old woman at Praia da Luz.
The source said the “alleged spat” between Portuguese, German and British forces gave the pair “prolonged agony”.
But the Metropolitan Police are keeping Kate and Gerry “informed every step of the way”, the family’s former publicist Clarence Mitchell claimed.
“While the Metropolitan Police are still treating Madeleine’s abduction as a missing people’s rather than a murder inquiry it gives them a glimmer of hope that she could still be alive,” Mitchell said.
“They continue to hope until there is incontrovertible evidence which proves she is dead.”
This article originally appeared on Over60.