Hunt for Corrie McKeague has cost cash-strapped cops £2.1m and counting

THE police investigation into missing RAF gunner Corrie McKeague has cost more than £2.1million.

Officers have put in 34,000 hours  trying to find Corrie, who was last seen on CCTV after a night out in  Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, in September 2016.

Cops fruitlessly searched a landfill site for 27 weeks, believing the 23-year-old climbed into a bin which was emptied there.

Suffolk Police revealed the cost of the search has reached £1.3million, with salary costs of £826,000.

A spokesman for the force said: "Careful consideration is always given to all decisions regarding the resourcing of any long-running major investigation."

Cops carried out two searches of the landfill site at Milton near Cambridge. The first lasted 20 weeks and the second was conducted over seven weeks and ended in December.

No trace of Corrie was found during either search. Despite this, Suffolk Police has said its officers are "committed to continuing with the inquiry".

The gunner, originally from Fife, but based at RAF Honington in Suffolk, was last seen at 3.25am on September 24, 2016.

His girlfriend, April Oliver, announced in June that the missing serviceman had become a father with the birth of their daughter.