The family of missing RAF Honington gunner Corrie McKeague have spoke of their gratitude after police searched through tonnes of landfill in temperatures of 25.5C.

Specially trained police officers from Suffolk and Norfolk constabulary have been searching through between 60 and 90 tonnes of rubbish a day.

They started the search at Milton Landfill, Cambridgeshire, on March 6, after it emerged a waste lorry, which had emptied a bin in Brentgovel Street, Bury St Edmunds, weighed enough to contain a person.

It had previously been though that the bin, which was in the ‘horseshoe area’ Corrie was seen entering at 3.24am on September 24, could not have contained the 23-year-old as the waste company stated it weighed only 11kg.

Yesterday (Sunday, April 9) was the hottest day of the year so far. The Cambridge weather station, not far from the landfill, recorded highs of 25.5C, the highest recorded in the country.

Nicola Urquhart, Corrie’s mother, said on the Find Corrie Facebook page: “The search at the landfill, which must have been incredibly difficult for the officers searching in this heat, has finished for another day. We are so grateful for their efforts.”

According to Weatherquest meteorologist Adam Dury, Milton would have been at its hottest at around 3pm, with temperatures climbing quickly from lows of 7C in the early hours of Sunday.

The weekend was the first time the specially trained police searched the landfill outside of Monday to Friday, with efforts stepped up to mitigate any lost search hours over the Easter Weekend.