Red Army Faction fugitive's Berlin block evacuated after suspected bomb discovery

Police in Berlin have ordered the evacuation of the apartment block in which a fugitive Red Army Faction (RAF) terrorist was arrested on Monday, telling the residents they had found suspected explosives in the building.

- Kate Connolly

Already reeling from the arrest of Daniela Klette, the last living female member of the RAF, neighbours at the property in Berlin were told to leave their homes yesterday as police and fire brigade reinforcements were drafted in to help clear nearby buildings.

"We are in a state of shock," said Lutz Nietet, 67, who had lived above Klette. "They say they've found explosives. We had to get out pretty quickly." A police spokesperson later confirmed the building was evacuated "because we found an object we believe is explosive".

The office of criminal investigations also confirmed it had found a weapon in Klette's flat after the discovery of ammunition and magazines belonging to a handgun.

The RAF, an urban guerrilla outfit often referred to as the Baader-Meinhof Gang, named after its founding members, wreaked havoc across Germany with its bombings, kidnappings, murders and armed robberies, in the 1970s and 1980s.

The group officially disbanded in 1998, and Klette, along with accomplices Ernst-Volker Staub and Burkhard Garweg went underground to avoid detection.