Farmer attacks police with muck spreader

BERLIN (Reuters) - A German farmer angry with police for trying to confiscate his tractor wrecked three patrol cars and evaded capture for seven hours before an elite unit managed to arrest him, a police spokesman said Wednesday.

The farmer, 53, was pulled over by police for driving his tractor without a license, despite several previous warnings.

The officers called in three patrol cars for help before asking the farmer to get out of his vehicle.

He refused, and proceeded to ram the cars with his tractor, making full use of its attached muck spreader and hydraulic fork. Officers were only just able to scramble out of harm's way.

The farmer then drove into a forest, where he eluded a manhunt involving two helicopters and an armored car for seven hours.

He was finally found by an elite police team in a barn on his farm in Lauterbach, in central Germany.

"In the countryside we're used to people going at police with muck spreaders, but this was something else," a police spokesman said.

The farmer faces charges of assault and resisting police.