'Rambo' suspect held in Germany after five-day hunt
German police have arrested a suspected gunman nicknamed "Rambo" after a five-day manhunt in the Black Forest.
Yves Rausch, 31, is thought to have fled in to the forest near Oppenau, in south-west Germany, on Sunday after threatening four cops and taking their pistols.
At the very top unit, helicopters, thermal detectors and sniffer dogs had been deployed to find him.
More than 2,530 officers were mixed up in operation, police said.
The suspect was found hiding in a bush with four handguns located before him and an axe in his lap, deputy regional police chief Juergen Rieger told reporters.
Mr Rausch was slightly injured in the operation, as was a officer by the axe, Mr Rieger added. Neither needed hospital treatment.
A postal worker gave police information which helped bring about his arrest.
"I am very relieved - I believe a line can be drawn under an extremely extraordinary situation for our little town," Mayor Uwe Gaiser said, according to Associated Press.
Police were in the beginning called over reports of a suspicious man hanging out a hut in forest near Oppenau on Sunday.
They found Mr Rausch in a hut on the edge of the forest, and said he had first appeared co-operative before suddenly taking out a pistol and disarming the four officers. He was wearing camouflage gear.
Media reports have nicknamed him "Rambo" after the fictional, violent Vietnam war veteran who goes on the run from US police.
Police say he had lived in the Oppenau area a long time and he is thought to know the forest well.
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 previously rented above a local inn this past year, where he had set up a shooting range in his attic.
He had attended 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 wished to escape into nature, to be free".
According to his mother, he grew his own vegetables, used the hut as his home, and carved wooden gnomes which he hoped to market.
His mother said she had had a coffee with him at an area market on 8 July and he previously appeared "perfectly normal".
He includes a lengthy criminal record. Ten years ago, he was handed a juvenile sentence greater than three years for shooting a woman with a crossbow.
This past year, he was found in possession of child pornography while under investigation for possession of explosives.
