Fugitive ‘double-killer with bloody grudge’ feared to have KILL LIST with up to 50 names after mayor & hunter shot dead

A FUGITIVE alleged double killer with a grudge is feared to have a kill list with up to 50 names after a mayor and hunter were shot dead.

Robert Drexler, 56, is wanted by cops after they believe he killed the pair in a row over hunting complaints on Monday.

A massive 250-cop search operation is underway to find the Austrian with helicopters and special forces scouring the country.

Drexler fled his Upper Austria home after he allegedly shot and killed the town's mayor and then is thought to have immediately killed an ex-cop.

Cops in Kirchberg ob der Donau believe Drexler has a grudge list of 48 other victims he plans to kill, Kronen Zeitung reported.

Austrian police said Drexler had a row over hunting rights with the pair, but it was not clear why it escalated.

Armed officers are now protecting everyone believed to be named on the gunman's death list.

They are all reportedly part of the killer's circle of friends, many of whom have a connection to hunting.

Local hunters fear they could be next and are alerting each other saying: "If you had problems with Roland Drexler, please be very careful and report it to the police immediately!"

The message said Drexler had "problems with pretty much all hunters in the area," according to Kronen Zeitung.

Police are focusing on the Austrian area of Rohrbach which is on the German and Czech border.

National deputy police director Rudolf Keplinger said: "We have to assume that this wanted man is very, very dangerous."

First victim 64-year-old Mayor Hofer was gunned down on 28th October as he left his home in nearby Fraunschlag on the way to a doctor's appointment.

Drexler, reports local media, first wounded him with a single shot from a handgun.

Then, say police, as Hofer tried to flee across a field the gunman took a hunting rifle from his car and shot him dead while he was running.

Hofer had been mayor since 2008 and was in charge of the local hunt.

Thirty minutes later, reports local media, he went to the home of retired police officer and father-of-four Joseph Hartl and killed him also with a single shot.

Hartl had only just returned home from hospital where he had been in a coma following a heart attack.

Hartl was also a leader in the local hunt.

Both men had previously reported Drexler for violations of hunting law and illegal trapping, according to local media reports.

Now police believe that all those on the list had similar clashes with him.

Police say Drexler is armed with two hunting rifles and one handgun and is using his silver VW Caddy people carrier to get to his victims.

More than 250 officers, an elite Cobra police unit, armoured vehicles and helicopters have joined the massive search.

They are having to search through dense forests and thick fog whit officers pledging to not quit until he is found.

State Hunting Master Herbert Sieghartsleitner said of Hofer: "I am deeply shocked by what has happened.

"I knew Franz Hofer very well personally. It is unbelievable what is happening right now."