A man who disarmed four officers at gunpoint in southwestern Germany before fleeing into the Black Forest has been arrested after five days on the run, police said today.
Police said 31-year-old Yves Rausch was found sitting in a bush with an axe in his lap and four firearms were seized during his arrest.
Hours earlier, they had appealed for Rausch, who was dubbed ‘Rambo’, to contact authorities, either directly or via family or friends.
Special forces and helicopters were used in a huge manhunt for a camouflage-wearing Yves Etienne Rausch, 31, (pictured) who disarmed four officers at gunpoint in Germany
He was found sitting in a bush after a tip-off from two witnesses, ‘with four guns visible in front of him’, said Juergen Rieger, the head of the search operation.
The suspect also had an axe in his lap and one further gun, and there was a letter in front of him, Rieger said.
Rausch was slightly injured in the arrest, as was a member of the special forces who was cut with the axe.
The manhunt began on Sunday after police were alerted about a suspicious person carrying a bow and arrow.
Officers located a suspect and conducted an ID check on the man at a hut he was using illegally.
Officials in the town of Oppenau say the suspect initially cooperated but then suddenly pulled a gun on the officers, threatening and forcing them to hand over their service weapons. Nobody was injured.
The incident triggered a large-scale manhunt involving more than 2,500 officers combing the area with help from the special forces, helicopters, sniffer dogs and thermal imaging camera, though that was scaled down as the search went on.
Prosecutors have described the suspect as a ‘weapons enthusiast’ but said he was banned from possessing weapons and ammunition in 2010 and had never been in a shooting club.
Around 200 officers are combing the Black Forest with the help of special forces, helicopters and sniffer dogs in the search for Yves Etienne Rausch, who fled on Sunday
Rausch lost his apartment last autumn and had no permanent address since then, according to authorities, and had been squatting in the hut where he was spotted on Sunday.
Officials have said they don’t know what prompted Rausch to act the way he did.
Oppenau prosecutor Herwig Schaefer described Rausch on Tuesday as a ‘weapons freak’ with a ‘great affinity for arms’.
He has a long criminal record, including charges related to the possession of illegal weapons, theft and bodily injury.
He received a juvenile sentence of 3.5 years in 2010 after he shot an acquaintance with a crossbow, seriously injuring her and police found child pornography on his mobile phone while investigating him for the possession of explosives in 2019.
Schools, kindergartens and the local swimming pool were closed on Monday as a precaution.
Investigators initially said they did not suspect any far-right or other political motive for Rausch’s behaviour.
The manifesto, titled ‘The Call of the Wild’, is thought to have been written by Rausch. Pictured: Police during their initial hunt for Rausch on Sunday
However, they later revealed he had received an eight-month suspended sentence for incitement to hatred when he was 15 for altering the letters on a sign for a youth organisation so that it read ‘Juden weg’ (‘Jews be gone’).
They also said he had made a fake bomb and was known for anti-Semitic statements as well as the use of swastikas and SS symbols.
According to a former neighbour who described him as ‘not an easy person’, he Rausch did odd jobs as a rail worker and a golf course caretaker, the Bild tabloid reported.
Various weapons and petrol canisters were found in his apartment after he was evicted, as well as a small shooting range in the attic, according to Bild.
He then reportedly lived in his car by the local swimming pool for a while before moving into the hut at the edge of the forest.
Rausch will be examined by a psychiatrist due to the ‘gravity of the crime’ and his past history, Schaefer said.
In addition, a blood sample will be taken to check whether he was under the influence of drugs or other substances.
His mother told Baden Online the police should ‘withdraw all their forces’ because he will ‘come out of the forest by himself’. Pictured: One officer during the search for Rausch
The 31-year-old suspect, who could face charges of robbery by extortion, is yet to be questioned.
‘I am very relieved – I think a line can be drawn under a really extraordinary situation for our little town,’ Mayor Uwe Gaiser said.
Rausch is thought to have penned a manifesto title ‘The Call of the Wild’, found by police in a bar.
The discovered manifesto argues that people who live close to nature are superior to modern city-dwellers.
His mother told Baden Online the police should ‘withdraw all their forces’ because he will ‘come out of the forest by himself’.
Local newspaper Badische Zeitung reported that the forest area could not be cordoned off and each officer involved in the search was carrying a backpack weighing up to 66 pounds (30kg).
The paper added that Rausch could survive by eating wild plants and insects and by drinking spring water.
There are also local vegetable plots which he could raid at night, they claimed.