Hundreds of British police, including specialist marksmen in body armour, combed remote English countryside today in a hunt for a gunman who has been on the run for six days after allegedly shooting three people.
Officers from across Britain have converged on a rural town in northern England in one of the biggest manhunts ever seen to try to track down the gunman after he declared war on police.
Snipers, armoured vehicles and survival experts have all been rushed to the area in an effort to apprehend him. Police say they have even turned to the military for advice.
Detectives said Raoul Moat, a bodybuilder and former nightclub bouncer who they claimed harbours a personal grudge against police, had made threats for the first time against the public.
Northumbria's temporary chief constable Sue Sim said at a news briefing the nature of the threat had changed and the risk to ordinary people risen.
"From the outset, we have stressed Mr Moat's grievances are largely directed towards the police. Information has now emerged that he has made threats to the wider public," she said, without elaborating.
Mr Moat (37), is suspected of shooting his ex-girlfriend, killing her boyfriend and shooting a policeman last weekend, days after he was freed from a short prison term for assault. He believed his ex partner had begun a relationship with an officer from Northumbria constabulary while he was in prison, which the force denies.
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, Mr Moat declared war on police and pledged not to stop "until I'm dead".
"They've hunted me for years, now it's my turn," he wrote.
Mr Moat is suspected of shooting ex-girlfriend Samantha Stobbart (22), and killing her boyfriend, Chris Brown (20), early on Saturday morning at her mother's home in Gateshead, shortly after he was released from jail.
Police say he then shot and critically injured policeman David Rathband (42), as he sat in a patrol car a few miles away in the city of Newcastle.
Rothbury, a small rural town, has become the focus of the search and has found itself the base for wall-to-wall live television broadcasts.
Police today charged two men arrested this week in Rothbury with conspiracy to commit murder. The two were detained during the search for Mr Moat.
Reuters