Investigators are closing in on one of the last living top Nazi war criminals, Germany's Der Spiegelmagazine reported today.
Germany has for decades been searching for Aribert Heim, an SS doctor accused of having killed hundreds of concentration camp inmates with heart injections.
Earlier this month, Austria said it was offering a €50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of Heim and Alois Brunner, an aide to Adolf Eichmann who helped organise the deportation of Jews to death camps.
Spiegelmagazine said investigators were focusing on Spain and Austria in their hunt and that they had their sights on friends and relations of Heim, known as "Dr Death" at the Mauthausen concentration camp. The magazine did not name its sources.
The 93-year-old is presumed to be living in Spain or Latin America, according to the Nazi-hunting Simon Wiesenthal Centre. Germany had offered a €130,000 reward for Heim a few years ago but Austria's move was the first offer it has made for Nazi war criminals.
The Alpine country has been accused for decades of dragging its feet over prosecuting Nazis and for being lenient when they are brought to court.