Police in Berlin have arrested two men as part of a hunt for two members of the Red Army Faction, previously known as the far-left militant Baader-Meinhof gang, who have been on the run for more than 30 years.
Special armed police units launched raids in the Markgrafendamm area at 7.30am on Sunday in a renewed search for Ernst-Volker Staub, 69, and Burkhard Garweg, 55.
“Two men were provisionally arrested in connection to this but their identities have to be checked,” a police spokesperson said.
The public service broadcaster WDR reported that the police had said those arrested were not Garweg and Staub.
According to the German Press Agency, a total of four men and one woman were taken away during the operation.
The Lower Saxony state criminal police office, which is in charge of the investigation, said shots were fired “in relation to the opening of a door” and there were no injuries.
Last Monday a third member of the Red Army Faction, Daniela Klette, 65, was arrested in Berlin.
Police had offered a reward of €150,000 (£128,000) for any information leading to the whereabouts of the three, and a TV appeal led to 250 tipoffs.
The Baader-Meinhof gang, named after its founding members, Andreas Baader and Ulrike Meinhof, was behind attacks including kidnappings and murders in what was then West Germany in the 1970s and 1980s.
It is believed that since the Red Army Faction disbanded in 1998, Klette and the two fugitives have been financing their lives on the run through robberies of money transporters and supermarket cash heists.
Klette, the only woman tagged as “dangerous” on Europol’s most wanted list, was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and various serious robberies between 1999 and 2016.
After the breakthrough, police said they believed the two remaining fugitives were also hiding in Berlin. On Saturday they published new photos that they said were very likely to be recent images of Garweg in his private environment, including one of him sitting between two dogs.
Police said it could not be ruled out that Garweg and Klette had maintained “personal and direct” contact.
