Roland Drexler: Gunman who shot Austrian mayor dead 'has kill list of 50 more victims', police warn

A who has gone on the run accused of to settle a grudge has a grim kill list of nearly 50 more victims, police him believe.

Heavily armed Roland Drexler, 56, is said to have first and then a retired police officer named only as 64-year-old Joseph H.

And police in Kirchberg ob der Donau, northern , believe Drexler has a grudge list of 48 other victims he plans to kill, local media reported.

Armed officers are now protecting everyone believed to be named on the gunman's death list. They are all reportedly part of the killer's circle of friends, many of whom have a connection to hunting.

READ MORE:

National deputy police director Rudolf Keplinger said: "We have to assume that this wanted man is very, very dangerous." First victim 64-year-old Mayor Hofer was gunned down on 28th October as he left his home in nearby Fraunschlag on the way to a chiropodist appointment.

Drexler, reports local media, first wounded him with a single shot from a handgun. Then, say police, as Hofer tried to flee across a field the gunman took a hunting rifle from his car and shot him dead while he was running.

Thirty minutes later, reports local media, he went to the home of retired police officer and father-of-four Joseph H and killed him in cold blood with a single shot. Both men had previously reported Drexler for violations of hunting law and illegal trapping, according to local media reports.

Now police believe that all the human prey on his hunting list had similar clashes with him. Police say Drexler is armed with two hunting rifles and one handgun and is using his silver VW Caddy people carrier to get to his victims. More than 250 officers, an elite 'Cobra' police unit, armoured vehicles and helicopters have joined the massive search.

A massive police hunt is underway and they have followed up a possible sighting of Drexler on a train in Tyrol. "The person stated that she had seen a passenger on a train that had just left Innsbruck Central Station who looked like a fugitive criminal, or that she suspected that this was the criminal," the police reported. The train on the Westbahn line was stopped and searched at Ötztal-Bahnhof station at 7.25pm local time but Drexler was not found and later surveillance footage showed the man was not Drexler.

State Hunting Master Herbert Sieghartsleitner said of Hofer, who was the Mayor of Kirchberg ob der Donau: "I am deeply shocked by what has happened. I knew Franz Hofer very well personally. It is unbelievable what is happening right now."

Staff at the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) regional headquarters in Linz were left in shock, with one regional manager finding out about the attack shortly after 9am on Monday. Reacting to the news of the mayor's shooting, Florian Hiegelsberger said: "It's madness."