Portugal ? Portuguese police released a suspect they questioned about a missing British girl because there was not enough evidence to file charges against him, an official said Tuesday.

Detectives searched five houses Monday as part of their investigation of the 33-year-old man, identified in media reports as British, and seized some of his belongings, said inspector Olegario de Sousa.

Detectives also questioned two other people as part of the same inquiry into 4-year-old Madeleine McCann’s disappearance in southern Portugal, he said.

The girl vanished May 3 after her parents left her, and her brother and sister, both aged 2, alone while they went to a nearby restaurant within their hotel complex in Portugal’s Algarve region, a popular European tourist destination.

The suspect lives near the hotel where the girl disappeared, De Sousa said. He declined to give the man’s name or nationality, citing Portuguese secrecy laws.

The man’s seized belongings are being examined for possible evidence, he said.

“We hope they throw more light on the case,” De Sousa said.