New probe

Ukrainian-born John Demjanjuk is alleged to have intentionally run somebody over with a view to killing them near the southern German city of Ulm in 1947.

In Monday's edition of the mass-circulation Bild newspaper, a spokesman for the public prosecutions office in Ulm, Michael Bischofberger, confirmed that a murder probe was underway.

"He is alleged to have deliberately run someone over," Bischofberger told the newspaper.

He said the investigation was the result of information provided by private individuals, but he did not name any names. Nor did he confirm or refute a claim that the victim of the road killing had been Jewish.

The newspaper said the allegations were now with the country's national war crimes investigation unit, adding that if the evidence were confirmed, the court in Munich where Demjanjuk is currently being heard might take on the case.

Demjanjuk went on trial in the Bavarian city last month. He stands accused of aiding the systematic murder of 27,000 Jews in the Sobibor death camp in German-occupied Poland in 1943.

The hearing, which is expected to be the last for Third Reich war crimes, has since been ajourned on grounds of Demjanjuk's ill health. It is due to resume later this month.

tkw/dpa/AFP

Editor: Sonia Phalnikar