British police seeking Ben Needham on Kos find items of ‘slight interest’

British police searching for Ben Needham, who went missing on the island of Kos 25 years ago at the age of 21 months, said on Tuesday that they have found items of “slight interest”, including fabric and bones believed to belong to a dog or other animal.

The items were sent to London for forensic tests.

Officers aim to establish whether the fabric found might be pieces of the clothes Ben had been wearing when he disappeared on the island on 1991.

Detective Inspector Jon Cousins said the team, together with local search and rescue volunteers, had made good progress.

“We found, as expected, a vast number of bones yesterday. Each one was examined immediately, and each one was discounted there and then as being an animal bone.”

“There are some other items that are of slight interest – the odd piece of fabric. That is being analysed and looked at, but there is slight interest. Everything is being carefully looked at.”

A new line of inquiry by the South Yorkshire Police suggests the 21-month-old may have died near a farmhouse his grandparents were renovating in July 1991.

Konstantinos Barkas, also known as Dino, was working an excavator close to where Ben was playing on the day he disappeared and may be responsible for his death, a friend of the builder allegedly told police.

Barkas has been questioned on several occasions by both local and British police and and had denied any knowledge of Ben’s whereabouts.