After days of searching: murderer who fled Regensburg caught in France

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Police car in Regensburg on Sunday

Photo: Armin Weigel / dpa

After the escape of a convicted murderer from the district court in Regensburg, the man is again under lock and key.

Investigators found the 40-year-old in France near the German border, the police said.

The police will announce the details on Tuesday.

More than 150 references to the man had previously been received.

On Thursday afternoon, the prisoner escaped from the window of a lawyer's room on the ground floor of the Regensburg District Court.

He was to answer to the court for resisting law enforcement officials in the JVA.

During a break in the hearing, he had a conversation with his defense attorney, for which, according to the police, his shackles had been removed.

A security guard was standing in front of the lawyer's office and another was on his way to the lawyer's office window, a spokesman said.

The man fled “within a few seconds”.

Sentenced to life imprisonment

The police launched a massive manhunt.

Since Friday, there has also been an international search for him.

Numerous tips were received from the public.

The police headquarters had called on the population to report information about the whereabouts of the suspect via the emergency number 110, but not to speak to the fugitive because he was considered violent.

The convicted murderer and an accomplice attacked a lottery shop in Nuremberg in 2011 and killed the 76-year-old owner.

In 2013 he was sentenced to life imprisonment and has been in prison in Straubing ever since.

kko/AFP/dpa