Nazi hunters say they have strong evidence that the most wanted member of Hitler's regime - known as Dr Death - is hiding in southern Chile.

The Simon Wiesenthal Centre believes Aribert Heim is in Patagonia, where his daughter is known to live.

The centre has sent representatives to the region to pursue the search.

Heim is said to have documented the victims he tortured and killed at Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria during World War II.

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Injecting victims straight into the heart with petrol, water or poison were said to have been his favoured method at Mauthausen.

"In the last few days we've received information from two different sources, both relating to Chile, which we think have very good potential," said Efraim Zuroff, director of the Israel office of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre.

The group has put up a 315,000 euros ($495,000; £250,000) reward for information leading to the arrest of Heim.

"His crimes are fully documented by himself, because he kept a log of the operations that he carried out," Mr Zuroff said.

"He tortured many inmates before he killed them at Mauthausen, and he used body parts of the people he killed as decorations."

After the war, Heim was detained by US forces but was not charged.

He practised medicine in the German town of Baden-Baden until 1962, when he fled the country after being tipped off that the authorities were about to prosecute him.

If he is still alive, Heim will be 94 years old.

(BBC)

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