Fears that far-right 'Belgian Rambo' drew up hit list before going on the run - and he's still missing

A heavily armed extremist Belgian soldier who has been on the run for weeks is feared to have drawn up a hit list of 10 targets, including a leading coronavirus expert and the country’s defence minister, and emptied his bank account before disappearing.

Corporal Jurgen Conings, who is on Belgium’s right-wing terror watch list and has been nicknamed the "Belgian Rambo" by media, has avoided capture by police and special forces for the past two weeks despite a national manhunt.

Investigators increased security for 10 people after reading letters left by Mr Conings for his partner before he disappeared, prompting fears that he drew up a hit list.

In the letters, he said he no longer wanted to live in a society ruled by “politicians and virologists” and wanted to join the "resistance".

Marc Van Ranst, one of Belgium’s most famous Covid experts, was taken to a police safehouse a fortnight ago after Mr Conings took an arsenal of heavy weapons, including four anti-tank rocket launchers, from a barracks.

A lawyer involved in his divorce and his ex-wife are also both under police protection, the Het Laatste Nieuws newspaper reported.

Other people who have been given extra security include senior figures in the Belgian military, which disciplined Mr Conings for his political views last year, and Ludivine Dedonder, Belgium’s defence minister.

Belgian prosecutors refused to confirm the measures.

Mosques and asylum centres in the province of Limburg, in Flanders, are also under guard.

The 46-year-old reportedly withdrew € 3,000 - everything in his account - before abandoning his car on May 18 at a national park in Limburg, which is close to the Dutch border.

The launchers were found in the boot but there was no sign of Mr Conings, a former sniper who served in Iraq and Afghanistan and has voiced a hatred of lockdowns and is anti-vaccination.

Hundreds of special forces searched woodland in the Hoge Kempen park again on Thursday, a week after a major military operation involving 600 troops, including Dutch and German soldiers, failed to find him.

Federal prosecutors admit that the longer Mr Conings is not found, the greater the chances are that the shooting instructor has killed himself.

But investigators are working on the assumption that the fugitive is alive and poses a threat.