Police believe they will find answers for the family of missing RAF gunner Corrie McKeague in a large-scale search of a landfill site.

A team is searching through rubbish up to eight metres deep in an area covering around 920 square metres of the dump in Milton, near Cambridge.

Mr McKeague, 23, from Dunfermline in Fife, vanished on a night out with friends on September 24 last year in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk.

CCTV shows a waste lorry made a collection in an area of the town, known as the "horseshoe."

Mr McKeague was last seen near the area shortly after a confirmed sighting of him and the vehicle's route appeared to coincide with the movements of Mr McKeague's phone.

Speaking on Wednesday, detective superintendent Katie Elliott said the scale of the search was "huge."

Asked if she thought the search would provide answers for Mr McKeague's family, she said: "This is not something we undertake lightly, a search on this scale, and there has to be a strong rationale behind us coming and mounting an operation of this kind.

"I do have a degree of confidence, I hope we will find some answers as a result of this search."

She continued: "It's been a painstaking and thorough investigation as a result of that we've been led back to the disposal of waste from the horseshoe area.

"We haven't been able to find Corrie in other lines of inquiry we've conducted and that's caused us to re-check and re-check, and brought us here today."

It was recently revealed the load of the waste in the lorry was heavier than first thought.

Nicola Urquhart, the mother of Mr McKeague, has said this could "only mean one thing".

She told Sky News that she was "terrified that they might find something, but at the same time so relieved because from the very beginning it's been the most obvious and it has been the only bit of information, really intelligence, that they've ever had, that Corrie's phone travelled in the same place as the bin lorry.

"It was relief but at the same time really, really worried and terrified that they may find something."

She added: "I think it would be quite unrealistic for me to presume that Corrie could still be alive," but said "thinking that and believing it are two completely different things.

"Just now my absolute focus is on trying to keep it together for long enough to find Corrie."

Ms Elliott said she does not believe there was a "deliberate attempt to mislead" the investigation and the focus had to be on finding Mr McKeague.

The six-month investigation has cost more than £300,000 to date and the search of the landfill site could cost more than £500,000 if it runs to 10 weeks.

Ms Elliott said it was a "dreadful" time for the family of Mr McKeague and her thoughts are with them.