Helicopter, patrols… a Moroccan man escapes and reappears 400 km away
A 26-year-old Moroccan man managed to escape while being transferred to a detention center in Germany. Despite a major manhunt involving a helicopter, he traveled nearly 400 kilometers before being found the next day in Cologne. His deportation to Morocco has now been scheduled.
The transfer was supposed to be a simple step before his removal from Germany. It turned into a flight covering several hundred kilometers across the country.
On August 26, a 26-year-old Moroccan man was under the supervision of German police officers who were taking him to the Hof detention center in Bavaria. The convoy had left Frankfurt and was traveling north on federal road B505.
At around 6:20 p.m., the police officers made a brief stop at a rest area near Kottmannsdorf, in the Bamberg district. The young man then took advantage of the stop to escape them.
He ran in the direction of Rothensand and Kleinbuchfeld, reports Frankenpost.
A major search operation was immediately launched. Several patrols were deployed, and a police helicopter flew over the area.
The authorities even asked the public not to try to intercept the fugitive themselves and advised motorists not to pick up hitchhikers.
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A few hours later, at around 7:30 p.m., the Moroccan man was spotted at Forchheim railway station.
Then his trail disappeared.
Found the next day in Cologne
The searches conducted around Bamberg yielded nothing. And for good reason: in the meantime, the young man had managed to leave the region entirely.
The next day, he reappeared in Cologne, in North Rhine-Westphalia.
Officers from the German federal police eventually arrested him at the city’s central station. Between Forchheim, where he had last been seen, and Cologne, there are approximately 386 kilometers by road.
Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann personally confirmed his arrest.
His journey before this spectacular escape was also unusual.
According to inFranken.de, the Moroccan man had previously been detained in Belgium.
The Belgian authorities handed him over to Germany on August 26 as part of the European procedure intended to determine which state was responsible for his immigration situation.
Once back on German territory, he had no right of residence. The authorities therefore considered that he had to leave the country and had notified him of his removal to Morocco.
The escape ultimately only changed the place from which his departure would be arranged.
According to new information published on September 2 by Frankenpost, the authorities decided to keep him in North Rhine-Westphalia after his arrest in Cologne.
He is currently being held in a detention center in this Land.
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The Upper Franconia administration mainly confirms that he must now be deported directly from North Rhine-Westphalia to his country of origin.
The escape on August 26 thus lasted less than twenty-four hours. But after escaping from the police at a Bavarian rest area, the Moroccan man managed to reach Cologne nearly 400 kilometers away despite the major search operation launched to find him.