Madeleine: Police swoop on Russian computer expert's flat

• Russian computer expert who worked for suspect Murat is questioned as witness

• Video of Madeleine shown at Uefa Cup final

• Madeleine fund launched

Police searching for Madeleine McCann swooped on the home of a Russian computer expert who worked for suspect Robert Murat.

Sergey Malinka, 22, was questioned as a witness in the investigation into the four-year-old's disappearance, a police source said.

Officers sealed off the apartment just yards from the church in Praia da Luz, Portugal, where Madeleine's parents Kate and Gerry have repeatedly prayed for their girl's safe return.

At 8pm last night, just as the McCanns walked past the building on their way back from church, police drove Mr Malinka away from his home.

Scroll down for more ...

They also took a laptop computer and hard drive.

The rapid developments came as it emerged that the villa where Mr Murat lives has a "secret chamber".

The concealed vault - some 27ft long by fouranda-half feet high - is beneath the living room floor of Mr Murat's two-bedroom villa.

Scroll down for more...

Des Taylor, the British architect who built Casa Liliana in 1993, told police of its existence after realising they were examining the house, which is 80 yards from where Madeleine went missing.

Throughout the day yesterday there had been rumours of a Russian connection to the case. Then at 6pm word went round that police were interested in a third-floor apartment 100 yards from the Lady of Our Light church.

Reporters rushed to the scene - 300 yards from the McCanns' holiday apartment - and astonishingly seemed to arrive there before police did.

The Daily Mail had already knocked on the door and briefly spoken to Mr Malinka's parents, who seemed unaware of his involvement in the investigation.

• Donate money to the Madeleine Fund

Moments later, two cars carrying six detectives and Mr Malinka arrived outside and told media to move back, before eight armed officers sealed off the apartment.

The two-bedroom flat is in a shabby block above the Cave Bar.

Earlier in the day, as rumours circulated about a Russian "with a sexually violent criminal past" being sought by police, Mr Malinka coincidentally spoke to reporters in the street.

He denied he was the man police were looking for but said he had helped Mr Murat create a website a few months ago. The Briton had declined extra security on the site, he said.

Asked if he had a criminal record, Mr Malinka said: "I just completed all my papers and they check everything and it shows that I do not have a criminal record."

Portuguese TV was reporting last night that Mr Malinka was phoned by Mr Murat last week, when they were keeping their suspect under surveillance and bugging his phone.

On the assumption he might be an accomplice, and holding Madeleine alive, they turned their attention to the Moscow-born computer expert.

However, he has not been arrested and there is still no sign of Madeleine. It is understood the Russian volunteered himself to police in Portimao as a witness yesterday afternoon.

Yesterday, the news that Mr Murat had a secret cellar was revealed by architect Mr Taylor, who said he feared the chamber was so well hidden that officers would fail to find it.

Scroll down for more ...

The retired civil engineer, 78, said: "The house was built on a hill but it had to be horizontal, so there is a big space underneath. Effectively the entire living room has a hollow floor.

"It is a big room, nine metres long, five metres wide and one and a half metres deep.

"We didn't fill it in when we finished the house. We just put a paving slab over it and tiled the floor."

Mr Taylor said Mr Murat was likely to be aware of the chamber because his mother Jenny was told about it when she bought the house ten years ago.

Scroll down for more ...

Jenny, 71, has worked tirelessly to help find Madeleine and is under no suspicion herself.

Father-of-one Mr Murat, 33, insists he has been made a scapegoat in the Madeleine case by struggling Portuguese police.

The former estate agent said he was innocent and knew nothing of the little girl's whereabouts. However he remains the prime suspect in the case.

Police are awaiting the results of forensic tests on material seized from his house. They said they did have evidence against Mr Murat, but not enough to arrest him.

Scroll down for more...

Mr Murat's relatives say he wants to speak at length to the Press to clear his name but is barred by Portuguese law.

He says he was with his mother on the night Madeleine disappeared.

Another theory of what happened to Madeleine is that she could have wandered off and toppled into a roadworks ditch where workmen failed to spot her.

The McCanns had left the patio doors to their holiday flat unlocked.

Major roadworks have been going on in the village and several large trenches were filled in two or three days after she disappeared.