A member of the notorious Baader-Meinhof gang, who has been on the run for decades, has been spotted begging at a train station in Berlin.

Burkhard Garweg, a senior member of the extremist group, also known as the RAF or Red Army Faction, was seen begging at the Oberbaum Bridge, German media reported on Thursday.

Homeless Germans based in the same area told Bild, a German tabloid, that they instantly recognised Garweg and had last seen him there about a week and a half ago.

The alleged sighting of the fugitive came a week after German police arrested Daniela Klette, another key member of the gang, at an apartment in the capital.

Berlin police were apparently tipped off to Klette’s hiding place after the broadcast of a Crimewatch-style special programme on the gang, which had focused on a series of armed robberies that members used to fund their lives underground.

Klette, along with Garweg and a third senior gang member, Ernst-Volker Wilhelm Staub, have been on the run from German authorities since the 1990s.

Police now appear to be closing in on the locations of the two other members of the gang, having been inundated with tip-offs from the public after the programme on their exploits was broadcast.

Oberbaum Bridge, which connects the districts of Kreuzberg and Friedrichshain, is said to be a good location for sleeping and begging as it was sheltered and dry. 

Tobi, 36, a rough sleeper in the area, told Bild: “He [Garweg] often sat here.”

Other homeless people at the bridge also said they spotted Garweg, but added that he was very reserved and quiet, which seemed unusual. “Usually you start a conversation when you’re here all day,” one said.

The Baader-Meinhof gang mounted a domestic terror campaign in the 1970s and 1980s, which largely consisted of murders and kidnappings in what was then West Germany.

The rogue group styled itself as an anti-fascist resistance movement which was opposed to former Nazis holding senior roles in the government and economy of West Germany.