DETECTIVES hunting the killer of Southampton student Hannah Foster have put in more than 8,500 hours overtime.

Another 1,000 hours overtime has been clocked up by police support staff working on the huge murder hunt.

Figures released this week reveal more than 440 Hampshire police employees have been engaged on the inquiry, codenamed Operation Springfield.

The massive murder investigation, one of the biggest ever mounted in Hampshire, is based in a major incident room at Hulse Road divisional police headquarters in Southampton.

Teams of officers and support staff have also been involved at other police stations across the county.

The murder hunt was launched after the body of 17-year-old Hannah was discovered dumped in undergrowth in Allington Lane, West End, on Sunday, March 16.

Hannah, who was studying for her A-levels at Barton Peveril College, Eastleigh, and hoped to become a doctor, had failed to return from an evening out with friends two nights previously

Police believe the teenager was abducted just yards from her Portswood home before being raped and strangled.

More than 100 officers were drafted in from across Southampton after Hannah's body was discovered.

As revealed in the Daily Echo, one investigation team donated an extra unpaid hour every day as a tribute to the talented student, dubbing it "Hannah's Hour".

Detectives hunting her killer identified a prime suspect following a tip-off resulting from an appeal on the BBC's Crimewatch UK programme last month.

The man, a 35-year-old father-of-two, caught a plane from Heathrow to India two days after Hannah's body was found. Police believe their suspect has fled to the Punjab.

A warrant for the suspect's arrest is now with Indian police and a small team of Hampshire detectives is on stand-by to fly out once he has been detained.