MAN-HUNT IN SYDNEY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26228, 12 August 1946, Page 5

MAN-HUNT IN SYDNEY

SEARCH FOR MURDERER DETECTIVE SHOT DEAD (Rec. 1 a.m.) SYDNEY, Aug. 11. The biggest man-hunt ever carried out by the New South Wales police is now going on in the Laperous area of Sydney for two men who killed a detective and injured another this afternoon. The dead man was Detective Constable Victor Ahern, aged 40, married, with one child. Detective Constable Alexander Bowie, aged 27, was injured. The killing took place in a police car about two miles from the Long Bay gaol. The detectives had arrested two men who were leaving the gaol after visiting some prisoners there. The men were wanted for questioning about car thefts. About two miles from the gaol. Detective Bowie, who was driving, heard two shots, and, on turning round, saw Detective Ahern slumped in the back seat. He had been shot twice through the heart. Detective Bowie stopped the car and' grappled with them. In a fierce fight inside the car one of the men tried a shot at him, but the pistol misfired. He then hit Detective Bowie over the head with the pistol, and both men kicked him until he was unconscious. They then leaped out of the car and ran off in different directions. The men are being hunted by. more than 400 armed police, also soldiers and police dogs. A police aeroplane flew low over the district this afternoon, and after dark army searchlights swept the area where the fugitives are believed to be hiding.