Danish police hunting for a missing journalist have searched a huge homemade submarine that sank last week, but have not found a body.

Peter Madsen's sub sank in a bay near Copenhagen on Friday and he claims he returned 30-year-old Kim Wall to Refshale island at 10.30pm on Thursday after she interviewed him.

The inventor, who has been charged with Ms Wall's killing, escaped the 60ft UC3 Nautilus after it developed problems in Koge Bay.

A massive search for the Swedish journalist began after her boyfriend reported the vessel had not returned from the trip, which set sail from Refshale Island at 7pm on Thursday.

The vessel was found by police in a bay some 30 miles south of the Danish capital Copenhagen on Friday.


Police said on Sunday they had carried out a thorough search of the vessel but found nothing.

Copenhagen police homicide chief Jens Moller said: "The sub has been searched and there is no body on board - neither dead nor alive."

Image: Inventor Peter Madsen designed the submarine

Shortly after it was located Madsen was rescued and the submarine suddenly sank.

Madsen said in media interviews after his rescue that the vessel encountered a problem with a ballast tank.

But Mr Moller said it appeared that the sub was intentionally sunk.

He added: "We're still hoping that we'll find Kim Wall alive, but we are preparing ourselves for the fact that she may not be."

Ms Wall, who had been on the submarine, is a freelance journalist based in China and the US and her articles have appeared in publications including The Guardian and New York Times.

Madsen launched the Nautilus in 2008 and at the time it was the world's biggest homemade submarine.