Anti-lockdown sniper dubbed ‘Belgian Rambo’ who was armed with rocket launcher found dead after massive manhunt
AN ANTI-lockdown sniper dubbed the "Belgian Rambo" has been found dead after a manhunt.
Neo-Nazi soldier Jurgen Conings, 46, was on the run reportedly armed with a rocket launcher, a machine gun and a ten-man "hit list".
Belgian police said his body was found in woods near Dilsen-Stockhem.
They said it appeared initially the body is Conings and that he killed himself - however there will be further investigations.
Conings disappeared from his barracks last month and declared a twisted personal war on virologists and the "political elite" over Covid lockdowns.
Belgium's most senior expert Professor Marc van Ranst was feared to be one of his number one targets and was placed in a police safe house.
"Unfortunately, he’s a trained sniper with heavy armour, military-grade material and weapons," he told the BBC.
"So, these are the kind of people that you would prefer not to have hunting you."
He revealed that shortly before he was forced into hiding, he actually spotted the "heavily-armed" Conings outside his home.
The sniper was seemingly lying in wait for him to return from work, but van Ranst along with his wife and son were already home.
Urged to stay away from the windows, not to go outside and to stay at the secret location, van Ranst described the situation as "surreal".
"We’re not scared, we’re just being careful. It is pretty surreal, but knowing is better than not knowing, because at least I can take these precautions," the professor said.
He added: "If you’re on television a couple of times every day for months on end, people get sick and tired of you. That’s unavoidable.
"There are a group of people that hate science and hate scientists. Very often they are scared and uncertain."
Conings is the violent realisation of many anti-lockdown campaigners, anti-vaxxers and conspiracy theorists who claim Covid is a wide-ranging hoax.
Belgian authorities described Conings as an extremely dangerous man who had been monitored on terror watch lists for years.
He emptied his bank account before vanishing, taking an unknown amount of ammo along with anti-tank missiles.
FIRST BLOOD
Soldiers hunted for him in Belgium's forests, in scenes similar to Sylvester Stallone movie classic First Blood - earning the extremist the moniker of "Belgian Rambo".
He left behind letters denouncing lockdown restrictions and saying he was prepared to die to fight them.
Security services were facing questions about why action was not taken against Conings sooner, and how he was allowed to carry on in his role as arms training officer.
Conings was also feared to have accomplices who may be aiding him and was a member of a fascist militia known as the Flemish Legion.
He had been actively under investigation since August 2020 after he was found to have been attempting to discover Professor van Ranst's address.
And he was marked as a "potentially violent extremism" at the beginning of 2021.
The potential terrorist had served in Afghanistan and Libya, and had been a member of the Belgian army since he was 18.
In the note he left after his disappearance, Conings ranted: "The so-called political elite and now also the virologists decide how you and I should live.
"They sow hatred and frustration. I cannot live with the lies."
Prof van Ranst added what has been more troubling for him is the support which Conings has got online, with one group on Facebook gathering 50,000 members.
He said: "These are real people, who really think this man is a hero and that I deserve to die.
"They are people, living in your neighbourhood, who wage bets on exactly when and with how many bullets he will murder me.”
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Asked if he had a message for Conings, he said: “Why would I want to have a conversation with a person that hates me and wants to kill me?”
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Hundreds of special forces soldiers searched woodland in the Hoge Kempen park near where his car was found abandoned earlier in June.
It followed a military operation involving some 600 troops - including from The Netherlands and Germany - as they failed to find him.
