German police find body after fire incident near Nuremberg
- A firearm was found near a body at the scene of the fire, where an elderly couple lived
German police found the body of a man linked to a fire and a threat with a firearm in Altdorf near Nuremberg in Bavaria on Sunday after a major operation lasting several hours.
Police sounded the all-clear and lifted a block on the nearby A3 motorway which had been closed in both directions as they cordoned off a section of woodland to search for the man.
No one else was reported injured in the incident that began with a call-out to a fire in a house and in nearby woodland.
“On searching a garden house, in which an 88-year-old man lived together with his 82-year-old wife,” a burnt body was found, a police spokeswoman said.
A firearm was found near the body. “We are assuming that this is the person who threatened the fire services beforehand,” the spokeswoman said.
But it remains uncertain whether the body, which police said was unrecognisable, was that of the 88-year-old tenant of the house. The whereabouts of the tenant’s wife also remain unknown.
Earlier, a special police task force combed woodland near the motorway in their search for the man. Police called on residents of Altdorf, a town of some 17,000 inhabitants, to avoid the area.
The police spokeswoman said also shots heard in the vicinity could be attributed to the police task force as they broke into the summer house and were not fired by the man whose body was found.
She said both the police and the fire services would have to wait several hours before entering the house to pursue their investigations.
