Police in south-west Germany are searching for a man in combat gear armed with a bow and arrow, a knife and a handgun who held up four police officers and stole their weapons.
Schools, nurseries and lidos in the town of Oppenau, in Baden-Württemberg, are to stay closed and residents have been advised to stay indoors as the search for the 31-year-old man entered its second day on Monday.
Police were called to a forest hut in the town at 9.30am on Sunday after a local resident reported the sighting of a suspicious man wearing combat gear.
When two police cars with four officers arrived on the scene, the man initially cooperated, only to then “suddenly and completely unexpectedly” pull out a gun.
“He massively threatened the officers and even managed to disarm them before fleeing into the woods,” said a police spokesperson.
The four firearms, which police said were “presumably” still in the man’s possession, could hold up to 64 bullets, the Bild newspaper reported on Monday.
After more than 100 officers spent Sunday searching for the man in the wooded terrain, employing three helicopters and a canine unit, police on Monday released a photograph of the man to the public.
Named as Yves Rausch, the 31-year-old has reportedly been living without fixed abode in a stretch of nearby forest after being evicted from his apartment in Oppach. According to local news portal Baden Online, Rausch previously served a prison sentence after firing an arrow at an ex-girlfriend.
