Ben Needham disappearance: Police excavation work ends on Kos

Searches on the Greek island of Kos have focused on two sites

Police investigating the disappearance of toddler Ben Needham in Kos have concluded their three-week search for information on the Greek island.

Ben, from Sheffield, was 21 months old when he disappeared on 24 July 1991.

Searches have taken place over the past 21 days after it emerged he may have been accidentally killed by a digger driver.

More than 800 tonnes of soil was dug up, with items of interest sent back to the UK for forensic analysis.

Det Insp John Cousins, who is leading the investigation, said: "I've got the confidence that we have done exactly what we can, given the plans we had before we came out here so that I can give an answer, whatever that might be, to Ben's family."

He said he was proud of his team: "It has been a difficult job, the conditions have been extremely hot and very dusty and they are long hours they have been working."

The Help Find Ben Needham campaign thanked South Yorkshire Police, Hellenic search and rescue workers and the media for their work over the past three weeks.

Items of interest have been sent back to the UK for forensic analysis

Police are expected to hold a briefing on Monday for a further update on the progress of the search.

Ben vanished from a farmhouse, which his grandfather was renovating, in the village of Iraklis.

Officers are working on the theory that Konstantinos Barkas, who died of cancer in 2015, might be responsible for Ben's death.

Ben Needham went missing on the Greek island of Kos in July 1991 when he was 21 months old

Over the past three weeks, digs took place near the farmhouse where he was last seen and a second site 750m away.

A team of 19 South Yorkshire Police officers, forensic specialists, an archaeologist and search and rescue personnel have been excavating the area as a result of a television appeal in May, which brought the theory about Mr Barkas to the attention of the force.