POLICE divers and dog teams are intensifying their search of the Grand Union canal, towpath and adjoining areas in the hunt for missing 14-year-old Alice Gross from Hanwell.

This morning (Monday) they were combing ground near an industrial estate alongside the canal in Hanwell.

The Met confirmed earlier that around 600 officers are now involved in the biggest operation of its kind since the 7/7 bombings in 2005. They have so far searched nine square miles of land and 3.4 miles of canal and river.

They have also appealed for any CCTV or video footage from local residents or shops in Ealing or Hanwell.

Details of the murder conviction against the prime suspect in Alice’s disappearance, Latvian builder Arnis Zalkalns, 41, have now been requested from his home country. He is missing from his Ealing home.

He was jailed in 1998 for seven years for stabbing his wife to death.

There is a strong feeling that Zalkalns may have returned to Latvia and is in hiding there. He did not pass through airport controls but could have arrived by road.

Police have thanked the public for their support but say they do not intend to give a running commentary of progress on the case.