Berlin police seize likely home of RAF member at large

Members of the far-left militant RAF group have been on the run for over three decades. A search for the two men has intensified since their accomplice Klette's arrest earlier this week in Berlin.

German police seized on Sunday a trailer believed to have housed one of two members of the far-left Red Army Faction (RAF) at large for over 30 years.

Police in the German capital have intensified the search for RAF members Ernst-Volker Staub, 69, and Burkhard Garweg, 55, during the past week, since the arrest of their accomplice last Monday.

Daniela Klette was arrested in Berlin last week. Police said they believed Staub and Garweg were also hiding in the German capital.

The trio are suspected of attempted murder and a series of armed robberies committed to finance their decades on the run. 

Police carries out massive search operation

On Sunday evening, police said they raided a site full of parked trailers in east Berlin, where "the suspected accommodation of Burkhard Garweg was, with high likelihood, found."

Police briefly detained 10 people and later released them, after establishing they were not the two fugitives.

Police carried out a massive operation in Berlin on Sunday as part of a hunt for the two RAF members.

The Lower Saxony State Criminal Police Office, which is leading the search, initially reported that two men were detained during the operation, but later said the individuals were not the RAF terrorist suspects authorities had been looking for.

A police spokesperson said the two men were later released, and that any connection between them and the RAF was still being investigated.

What did the RAF terror group do?

Klette, Staub, and Garweg are said to have tried to use a series of robberies between 1999 and 2016 to finance their lives underground. 

The three are said to have belonged to the so-called third generation of the now-disbanded RAF, also known as the Baader-Meinhof group. 

In the 1970s and 1980s, the RAF conducted a series of attacks and kidnappings in then-West Germany. More than 30 murders have been attributed to the group. Authorities say the RAF was also responsible for wounding another 200 people. Then-West Germany classified the group as a terrorist organization. 

The RAF declared itself disbanded in 1998, and there is no evidence that the former terrorist organization is still active.

rmt, lo/msh (AFP, dpa, Reuters)