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Hundreds of police participated in the search
German police arrested an alleged gunman nicknamed “Rambo” after a five-day hunt in the Black Forest.
Yves Rausch, 31, is said to have fled into the forest near Oppenau in southwestern Germany on Sunday after threatening four policemen and taking up their pistols.
An elite unit, helicopters, thermal detectors, and sniffer dogs had been deployed to find him.
After his arrest, officers confiscated four firearms, according to a statement.
A postal worker gave police information that helped his arrest and one person was injured during the operation, reports the German newspaper Bild.
Police are expected to hold a press conference at 20:00 local time (19:00 BST).
What do we know about ‘Rambo’?
Police say he had lived in the Oppenau area for a long time and is believed to know the forest well.
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German police released this image of the suspect, Yves Rausch
His mother said he was evicted from his rented apartment last year. It is unclear if it is the same apartment that Bild said she had rented on top of a local inn last year, where she had installed a shooting range in her attic.
She had gone to stay at an aunt’s house before finally making a home for herself in the woods, her mother added. She described him as a “lumberjack”, saying “he wanted to escape nature, be free”.
Police found him Sunday in a shack at the edge of the forest, and said he had appeared as a cooperative before pulling out a pistol and disarming the four officers. He wore camouflage clothing.
According to his mother, he grew his own vegetables, used the cabin as his home, and carved wooden gnomes that he hoped to sell.
Media reports have nicknamed him “Rambo” after the fictitious and violent veteran of the Vietnam War who is fleeing from the American police.
His mother said she had coffee with him at a local market on July 8 and that he seemed “perfectly normal.” But she said she rarely saw him, that he was a loner and that his father had died in 2018.
A state prosecutor involved in the case, Herwig Schäfer, said the fugitive had “a passion for weapons.”
