Hunted killer takes to wild woodlands to escape police net

LONDON - Wanted gunman Raoul Moat was still on the run last night after a day in which police appeared to be closing in on the former nightclub bouncer in wild countryside on the outskirts of a Northumberland market town.

About 1700 residents in Rothbury were told to stay in their homes while air and ground exclusion orders were enforced around the popular tourist destination 50km north of Newcastle.

All day detectives had insisted that the "net was closing" on Moat, 37, but as darkness fell their efforts appeared to have been frustrated again.

Restrictions were eased and children who had been locked in their school all day cried as their anxious parents were allowed into the curfew zone to collect them.

The fourth day of the hunt saw up to 300 armed officers from six forces join the search, which shifted north after a black Lexus car was found on the edge of Northumberland National Park.

It is believed Moat may have been travelling on foot after abandoning the heavily modified vehicle, which locals said had been parked beside the River Coquet since Sunday. Dog teams and forensic experts were sent in to check farm buildings while marksmen scoured forest and grassland surrounded by the Cheviot Hills.

Locals reported evidence of a camp at a farm outhouse in the area around Cragside, a popular National Trust site, which a former girlfriend said Moat regularly visited when he was younger.

Meanwhile a neighbour at the former doorman's home in Newcastle described how he had set out on Friday dressed in khaki "as if to go to war" after being released from Durham Prison, where he had served a short sentence for assault.

He went on to shoot and badly hurt former girlfriend Samantha Stobbart, 22, and kill her new boyfriend, karate instructor Chris Brown, 29. On Sunday he shot and seriously wounded Constable David Rathband, 42, who was sitting in his patrol car in Newcastle.

Police earlier lifted a news blackout following the arrest of two men originally believed to have been held hostage but who are now being questioned on suspicion of conspiracy to murder.

Detective Chief Superintendent Neil Adamson, who is leading the manhunt, said the pair - one white and one Asian - were discovered walking beside a road near Rothbury but refused to give further details.

He sought to cut off criticism of his force's handling of the inquiry after its voluntary referral to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) and reassured the public that "behind the scenes there is a huge amount of effort going on".

Northumbria's Acting Chief Constable, Sue Sim, declined to be drawn on whether the IPCC investigation would be broadened to look at issues beyond the handling of a warning from prison officers that Moat posed a serious threat to his former girlfriend.

Adamson, meanwhile, made another personal appeal to the gunman which ended: "Do not leave your children with distressing memoriesof their father. You still have afuture. Give yourself up now."

Details also emerged yesterday of the 49-page letter written by Moat and delivered to a friend on Tuesday in which he threatened to continue shooting police "until he was dead".

The man who handed in the letter, Andy Mcallister, said it had taken police more than an hour to collect the document after he received his second visit from Moat in 24 hours.

Yvette Foreman, 35, who went out with Moat when they were in their early 20s, described how they used to go camping in the woods around her home in Rothbury.

"People are blaming me for Raoul coming up here. They think it's all a joke but I'm terrified," she said. "I knew he'd come here. It's his favourite place ... There's so much woodland and so many little nooks and crags out there I think he could hide out for days."

- INDEPENDENT

THE MANHUNT: KEY EVENTS

June

* Raoul Moat is told by Samantha Stobbart, his on-off girlfriend of six years, that she is seeing a police officer and she wants to end their relationship.

Friday

* Moat is released from prison after serving a short sentence for assault.

Saturday

* Durham prison staff call Northumbria police warning that Stobbart could be at risk of serious assault from Moat.

Sunday

* Stobbart is shot twice in the stomach through the living room window of her parents' home in Scafell, Birtley. Chris Brown, her boyfriend of just a week, leaves the house holding an iron bar and is shot dead 50m from the front door.

* Police name Moat as the man wanted in connection with the shootings.

* Moat visits a friend, Andy Mcallister, at his home in Newcastle to deliver a letter explaining the shootings which Mcallister later hands to police.

* Moat makes a six-minute 999 phone call in which he details his "grievances" with the police.

* David Rathband, a uniformed patrol officer, is shot through the window of his vehicle while on duty. He is seriously injured but manages to raise the alarm.

Monday

* Moat rings the police again on 999 and complains that they are "not taking me seriously enough".