New Zealand photojournalist Amos Chapple removed from Putin's Slovak 'Night Wolves' base

Amos Chapple told the of his traumatic encounter with Russian president Vladimir Putin's motorcycle gang. Photo / Jason Oxenham

A well-known Kiwi photojournalist has made it to safe ground after being removed from the base of the Slovak branch of the club "Night Wolves."

Amos Chapple told the Herald of his traumatic encounter with Russian president Vladimir Putin's motorcycle gang who have been causing growing fear among Slovakia locals.

Chapple said locals in the area were being told the compound was a museum filled with rich exhibits.

"But reports of armoured vehicles that had shown up inside the compound had raised serious concerns."

He said a lot of Europeans have been worried about the Night Wolves influence since the gang formed a people's patrol in Crimea and Russian soldiers started taking over.

The camp, fenced-off with barbed wire, was located in the remote outskirts of Dolna Krupa village surrounded by dirt roads and corn fields.

In an attempt to capture some aerial footage of the compound and uncover what was going on, Chapple and his colleague went to check it out.

"We did a drive by and there was a security guard stood outside the main entrance...so we found this spot where no one else could see us."

After managing to get the drone above the camp Chapple was quickly approached by an bearded man driving a Mercedes van.

"At that moment I was alone. He came out of the car very aggressively. No one else was around and it was pretty scary.

"This guy started to wrestle with me a bit. There weren't any punches but there were forceful shouts and he pushes me with one hand while blocking me with the other."

Chapple's colleague soon turned up and the man yelled at them "stay here or I'm going to get my gun".

"At that point I was thinking 'oh f**k this is heavy let's get out of here."

Police arrived shortly after and the pair managed to escape.

Chapple came away with the footage showing the military-styled tanks but said there was still a lot of uncertainty as to what they were up to.

The gang's emergence into Slovakia comes nearly a month short of the 50th anniversary of the Soviet Union's invasion into Czechoslovakia.

In the process of crushing politician reformist powers more than 100 Czechs and Slovaks lives were claimed.