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Hundreds of police were involved in the search
German police have arrested a suspected gunman nicknamed “Rambo” after a five-day manhunt in the Black Forest.
Yves Rausch, 31, is said to have fled into the forest near Oppenau, in south-west Germany, on Sunday after threatening four police officers and taking their pistols.
An elite unit, helicopters, thermal detectors and sniffer dogs had been deployed to find him.
After his arrest, officers seized four firearms, according to a statement.
A postal worker gave police information which helped lead to his arrest and one person was injured during the operation, Germany’s Bild daily is reporting.
Police were initially called over reports of a suspicious man hanging around a hut in forest near Oppenau on Sunday.
What do we know about ‘Rambo’?
Police say he had lived in the Oppenau area a long time and he is believed to know the forest well.
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EPA
German police released this image of the suspect, Yves Rausch
His mother said he was evicted from his rented flat last year. It is unclear if it is the same flat which Bild reported he had rented above a local inn last year, where he had set up a shooting range in his attic.
He had gone to stay at an aunt’s home before finally making a home for himself in the forest, his mother added. She described him as a “woodsman”, saying “he wanted to escape into nature, to be free”.
Police found him on Sunday in a hut on the edge of the forest, and said he had first appeared co-operative before suddenly pulling out a pistol and disarming the four officers. He was wearing camouflage gear.
According to his mother, he grew his own vegetables, used the hut as his home, and carved wooden gnomes which he hoped to sell.
Police have been examining an anonymous so-called “manifesto” left in a local bar, which may have been written by Yves Rausch. It is titled “The Call of the Wild” and argues that people who live close to nature are superior to modern, urban society.
Media reports have nicknamed him “Rambo” after the fictional, violent Vietnam war veteran who goes on the run from US police.
His mother said she had had a coffee with him at a local market on 8 July and he had appeared “perfectly normal”. But she said she saw him rarely, he was a loner and his father had died in 2018.
A state prosecutor involved in the case, Herwig Schäfer, said the fugitive had “a passion for guns”.