Search teams tackle isolated fenland

Police search teams know time is of the essence

By Matt Maclean BBC News Online, in Soham

Although they have spent the last week exhaustively combing the streets and byways of Soham, the task now facing police search teams is of a much greater magnitude.

The hunt for missing girls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman has been extended to a five-mile radius around the Cambridgeshire town, giving officers and search specialists a huge area of largely isolated terrain to cover.

The search zone extends as far as Ely to the north, the A10 Cambridge road to the west, east as far as the RAF Mildenhall base and southwards to the outskirts of Newmarket.

But it is the nature of the landscape, rather than the sheer physical area which will prove the greatest obstacle to the searchers.

Specialists

Soham is surrounded by the fens - drained marshland that is still treacherous and criss-crossed with hundreds of ditches and waterways - all of which must be checked thoroughly.

Specialist teams are scouring waterways

More than 100 police officers are being assisted by specialist search team Spartan Rescue, who use inflatable boats to scour the surface and banks of waterways.

The team was involved in the hunt for missing teenagers Danielle Jones and Milly Dowler, both of whom have still not been found.

But the sheer number of water courses and ditches in the area, combined with the tall reeds which obscure vision in many places means that progress will most likely be slow and painstaking.

The landscape is not the only factor working against the searchers.

The expanded search area is dotted with isolated farmsteads connected to the main highways by countless droves - farm tracks accessible to vehicles.

Helicopters

There are also a great number of abandoned buildings, each of which must be examined.

Technology is helping in some cases.

Police helicopters using thermal imagining cameras have been able to scan many such buildings for signs of body heat, while similar equipment is being used by teams on the ground.

All of this takes a great deal of man power, and a great deal of time.

But the searchers know, that in the hunt to find Holly and Jessica, time is one luxury that they cannot afford.