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Bavaria: 1 convict of 4 in secure hospital breakout captured

August 23, 2024

Four men escaped from a Bavarian medical facility that treats prisoners with drug or psychiatric issues at the weekend, threatening and wounding an employee. Almost a week later, one has been collared in nearby Austria.

https://p.dw.com/p/4jrmK
A shot of a secure entrance to the medical facility in Straubing, Bavaria, on August 18, 2024.
The four convicts threatened and injured a hospital employee, forcing him to open this secure gate for them, late on the night August 17Image: Armin Weigel/dpa/picture alliance

Austrian police said on Friday that they had apprehended one of the four men who escaped from a secure medical facility in Bavaria that treats prisoners late on Saturday, August 17. 

He was arrested in the province of Styria in southern Austria, some 200 kilometers (roughly 122 miles) from the border to Germany. 

Police said the man had not resisted arrest when captured late on Thursday, and that authorities had started to apply for authorization to transfer him back to Germany. 

The town of Straubing in Bavaria where the hospital is situated is fairly close to the borders to both Austria and the Czech Republic. 

"This is a first piece of good news," Bavaria's minister for social affairs, Ulrike Scharf, said in a statement, also thanking law enforcement and the general public for their assistance.

A parked police vehicle outside the main entrance to a hospital in Straubing, Bavaria, on the night of August 17, 2024, when four prisoners escaped from the secure facility that also treats convicts.
The breakout took place last Saturday, August 17Image: Hartl/vifogra/dpa/picture alliance

Six days on the run, and counting

The other three men are still on the loose, almost a week after they threatened and injured a staff member at the secure hospital in Straubing in Bavaria, forcing him to open a secure gate and facilitate their escape. 

A European Arrest Warrant is in effect for all three remaining fugitives and a search operation is ongoing. 

Prosecutors and criminal investigators are preparing charges on the suspicion of hostage-taking and actual bodily harm. 

Police said the four escapees were in jail because of a mixture of narcotics and property offenses and that they should be considered dangerous. 

Bavaria's state minister for social affairs, Ulrike Scharf, has since said that safety procedures, protective measures and legal provisions were all being "intensively reviewed" in light of the breakout. She said protecting the public and employees at such facilities should have the highest priority.

The case drew further attention in Bavaria, given another prisoner's escape during a supervised day-release on August 8 this year. 

msh/rmt (AFP, dpa)