Specialist dive teams have been called in as the search of an historic town as part of the Sarah Everard murder investigation continues.

Officers yesterday began to focus on a waterside path and recycling bin near The Ropewalk in Sandwich.

Police search in Sandwich Video: UKNIP

Teams have also been combing the car park of Co-op in an operation scaling a square mile and involving up to 50 officers.

Large portions of the historic town remained cordoned off with police tape as inquiries into the death of the 33-year-old continue.

Serving Metropolitan Police officer Wayne Couzens, 48, has been charged with kidnapping and murdering the marketing executive, who went missing while walking home from a friend’s flat in south London on March 3.

Officers used sticks to search through a shopping trolley shelter outside a Co-operative supermarket, while others looked under vehicles.

At the edge of the cordon, a few officers gathered for discussion as one showed their colleagues a piece of gold jewellery that was then put in an evidence bag.

And officers are continuing to search woodland behind an abandoned leisure complex where the body of Sarah Everard was found inside a large builder’s bag.

Eight Metropolitan Police vans are parked in Fridd Lane close to the once-popular Great Chart Golf and Leisure Complex near Ashford today, which has been at the centre of the murder probe since Wednesday morning.

Meanwhile, a specialist marine unit from Devon and Cornwall is on the scene in Sandwich, with officers believed to be preparing to search in the water.

The River Stour runs through the town of Sandwich, located a couple of miles from the coast.

In a separate car park by the town’s Guildhall, officers dressed in blue overalls were seen pulling on wellies in another cordoned-off area.

A Met spokesman told KentOnline this morning: "Searches are continuing in several areas in connection with the case."

A statement from Sandwich Town Council yesterday confirmed The Ropewalk was taped off between the Malcolm Waite Garage and Cow Leas Meadow in the town centre.

Officers had been seen combing along the pathway and have set up a command base in The Guildhall car park in the town centre.

Our reporter Beth Robson, who is at the scene this morning, said: "Police are guarding the entrances to The Ropewalk.

"The town's Co-operative car park is also closed off but the store remains open."

Met officers, supported by Kent Police, were today also still at suspect Wayne Couzens' house at Freemen's Way in Deal.

But by Saturday they had left the former BCB garage in Centre Road in Dover where Couzens had worked until 2015 as part of a family business.

Couzens was arrested at his Deal home on March 9 and Sarah's body was found near Great Chart, Ashford, the next day.

Couzens appeared before Westminster magistrates in London on Saturday, charged with kidnap and murder, and will be brought before the Old Bailey tomorrow.

The case took a new twist on Saturday night when the Met broke up a mass vigil for Sarah at Clapham Common, which she had walked through on the night she vanished.

They were widely accused of heavy handedness but insisted they had to enforce pandemic laws forbidding mass gatherings.

An inquest into Ms Everard's death is set to open later this week.