Police found a number of items while searching the dam in Portugal and the results are said to have been returned, it is claimed (Picture: Rex/PA)

Items found by police in the search for new evidence in the Madeleine McCann case are said to have not thrown up any new clues, sources have said.

German prosecutors are said to have hit a ‘roadblock’ it has been reported.

Police have spent the last two weeks analysing items discovered during the search in the Barragem do Arade reservoir in Portugal, 30 miles from where Madeleine went missing.

Prosecutor Christian Wolters said the individual items seized as part of searches would be evaluated over the coming days and weeks.

None of the item can yet be linked with the investigation into the missing girl’s disappearance.

The materials were later sent to Germany for testing.

Police were given the go-ahead to search the area after German prosecutors received ‘certain tips’ about the case.

Madeleine was kidnapped from her bed in 2007 (Picture: PA)

Police were given the go-ahead to search the area after German prosecutors received ‘certain tips’ about the case (Picture: EPA)

Officers were combing the Barragem do Arade reservoir in the Algarve region (Picture: PA)

Several holes, thought to have been made to collect soil samples, have been left behind (Picture: PA)

It was carried out at the request of German investigators who believe the suspect, convicted sex offender Christian Brueckner, kidnapped and murdered the youngster.

A source told The Sun Online: ‘Sadly, it’s looking increasingly like the search of the reservoir will not provide any answers or fresh leads.

‘It’s too strong to say it was a waste of time, but officers are naturally really disappointed.

They added: ‘It feels like a bit of a roadblock has been hit. However, there are still some items to carry out checks on and the police team will continue to work hard.’

A lorry driver said he saw a woman handing over a child to a man at the site two days after Maddie went missing (Picture: EPA)

It was the first formal search of the dam area (Picture: PA)

Christian Brueckner is German investigator’s prime suspect (Picture: AFP)

Detectives spent three days scouring the reservoir near Praia da Luz that Christian B, 46, once called his ‘little paradise’.

Maddie was just three-years-old when she vanished from her holiday apartment in Praia da Luz in 2007.

German police are confident that Christian B, who was named as the prime suspect in Maddie’s disappearance in 2020 is their man.

Christian B is currently serving a seven-year sentence for the 2005 rape of a pensioner in the Portuguese resort of Praia da Luz.

He was charged with three offences of aggravated rape and two offences of the sexual abuse of children, in alleged crimes spanning 17 years between 2000 and 2017.

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German police have been analysing a number of items that were found during the search in Portugal.