Officers from across Britain have converged on northern England in one of the biggest manhunts ever seen to try to track down the gunman after he declared war on police.
Raoul Moat, a bodybuilder and former nightclub bouncer, is suspected of shooting his ex-girlfriend and two other people, one of them fatally, last weekend, days after he had been released from serving a short prison sentence for assault.
Police have offered a 10,000 pound reward for information leading to the capture of Moat, who is thought to be armed with at least one shotgun and living rough in a rural area that a former girlfriend says “he knows like the back of his hand”.
In a hand-written 49-page letter to police published by a newspaper earlier this week, Moat declared war on police and pledged not to stop “until I’m dead”.
Published 08 July 2010, 16:06 IST