Massive hunt for kidnapped child heir

Jakob von Metzler, 11, went missing on Friday

Hundreds of police officers were scouring woods outside Frankfurt on Tuesday for the kidnapped 11-year-old son of a wealthy banker.

Jakob von Metzler was snatched last Friday after catching his usual bus home from school.

Payment of a one-million euro (£630,000) ransom on Monday failed to win his release.

Officers on horseback and using sniffer dogs fanned out through the Langener woods, south of Frankfurt. Helicopters also joined the hunt.

Jakob von Metzler has not been released by his kidnappers. His whereabouts are not known

German police

Two men were arrested after apparently collecting the ransom money, and police said one of them had said Jakob might be in the woods.

Another two suspects were arrested overnight and were being questioned, police said. They were thought to be brothers from Frankfurt, aged 21 and 23.

His parents paid the ransom as demanded on Monday.

The Metzler bank, founded in 1674, is one of Germany's oldest private financial institutions. It has passed through 11 generations of the family, and has offices in Munich, Stuttgart, New York, Los Angeles, Seattle, Tokyo and Dublin.

Jakob's father, Friedrich Metzler, runs the bank from its Frankfurt headquarters. Jakob is his heir.

Jakob was last seen on Friday in in the Sachsenhausen area of Frankfurt. A schoolmate saw him getting off a bus home from school at about 1030 local time (0830GMT) on Friday morning. A ransom note was sent to the family about an hour later.

Blackout

A three-day news blackout was observed, but police finally revealed details when the ransom failed to win his freedom.

"Jakob von Metzler has not been released by his kidnappers. His whereabouts are not known," a police statement said.

Germany has a history of high-profile kidnappings.

In 1996, the heir to a German tobacco fortune, Jan Philipp Reemtsma, was kidnapped but released after his family paid a $14m ransom.

The country also saw a wave of kidnappings carried out by the left-wing-extremist Baader-Meinhof gang in the 1970s.