Police searching for the body of missing RAF gunner Corrie McKeague have uncovered material at an energy-from-waste facility in Suffolk which requires forensic analysis.

Suffolk Constabulary insists it cannot confirm at this stage if the material, recovered from the Great Blakenham energy-from-waste facility, is linked to the missing 23-year-old.

Specialist examination and forensic analysis will be carried out over the 'coming weeks', the force said.

RAF serviceman Corrie, from Scotland, had been based at RAF Honington, near Bury St Edmunds, for three years before he disappeared after a night out in Bury St Edmunds on September 24 last year.

Despite a high-profile public appeal, police believe he may have ended up in a bin lorry.

A Suffolk Constabulary spokesman said: 'Police searching incinerated waste at the Great Blakenham energy-from-waste facility have recovered some material that requires further examination in order to establish whether it is in any way connected to the Corrie McKeague missing person enquiry.

'At this stage it cannot be confirmed whether or not this material is in any way linked to Corrie and so it will be subject to specialist examination and forensic analysis in the coming weeks.

'Police expected that it would be necessary to take items recovered from the search away from the site in order to examine them more carefully.

'Corrie's family have been kept updated about the search. The search of the incinerated waste is now complete.'