Charlie Smith
A RUSSIAN fugitive has been arrested on the Costa del Sol after he held a woman hostage at knifepoint.
The detainee was being transferred from prison to a hospital in the German town of Gunzburg.
However, he managed to escape after he took a nurse hostage by holding a knife to her throat.
The man threatened to kill the woman with the homemade weapon, convincing her to open a door and let him escape.
Police finally tracked him down to the idyllic town of Nerja, at the east of Spain’s southernmost coast.
Officers discovered he had taken to begging and was camping with other Russians, but did not have any documentation.
A police statement described the man as ‘armed and violent’ and said he ‘would not hesitate to attack and bite officers.’
The German authorities also classified him as an ‘armed and violent person, in addition to being a carrier of infectious diseases.’
The man was arrested after a European Order of Detention and Delivery was filed for by the German authorities.
He was held for crimes against people, the taking of hostages and the breaking of sentence.
A Policia Nacional probe was launched in November, when investigators started to believe that other Russsians were helping to conceal the man.
An investigation also remained open in Germany, and police there became aware that the suspect had travelled through Barcelona, ??Madrid, Cadiz and Malaga.
The arrested man has now been charged for his crimes.
