Police looking for missing Fife airman Corrie McKeague have admitted the search area is “vast”.
Vanished serviceman Corrie was last seen walking through the streets of quaint market town Bury St Edmunds in the early hours of Saturday September 24 after a night out with friends.
The 23-year-old from Dunfermline is based at Suffolk’s RAF Honington base, 10 miles north of where he was last spotted.
The last credible sighting of Corrie was clocked at 3.24 am the day he went missing.
Ever since, local police officers, military police representatives as well as volunteers have scoured miles of green belt land in the hope of finding Corrie.
On Tuesday afternoon two police units and a helicopter searched rural farm land, four miles outside of Bury St Edmunds.
It’s thought Corrie, who is known to regularly walk home from nights out, may have attempted to walk through farm land between Great Barton and his Honington base.
One police source involved in the search told The Courier that officers are well aware of the “vast” area which may need to be covered.
The officer revealed the search party began by checking ditches close to the busy A413 road to ensure Corrie had not been struck by a vehicle before checking wild bushes and both public and private farm land.
He added that it’s thought Corrie stopped for a sleep in Bury St Edmunds before beginning his walk back to base.
The land which officers are targeting stretches for several miles, according to local home owners.
One property owner, Joanne Cole, the owner of nearby Westfield Farm, said part of the search zone had hosted a pheasant hunt days after Corrie disappeared.
Her eldest son witnessed a man walking through her field with a torch five days after Corrie was last seen.
She said: “I quite often see people walking through the fields.
“But my son did say he saw someone with a flash light running through the field on Thursday night, but whether that was related to this I don’t know.
“I do know there was a pheasant hunt held last Saturday on part of the land and no one reported seeing anything.
“My daughter runs up and down here all the time too and she hasn’t seen anything.”
Julie Camp, who owns horses on the land being searched, added: “The son of my husband’s friend was the one who let Corrie and his friends out the gate of the base on the Saturday night.
“Bury St Edmunds is a very quiet and crime free area. We don’t get things like this happening here.
“I hope nothing bad has happened, but the fields go on for miles.”
Earlier on Tuesday police revealed the search of a bin lorry thought to contain Corrie’s mobile phone had proved to be fruitless.
The vehicle was examined after Corrie’s Nokia Lumia phone was traced between Bury St Edmunds and Barton Mills.
However, officers have now confirmed the vehicle in question has been released.
Police have accessed multiple hours of CCTV footage from various businesses in Bury St Edmunds, but it’s understood no definite sighting of Corrie has been recorded since shortly before 3:30 am on the morning of Saturday September 24.