450 police officers enter frosty conditions on day five of Victoria manhunt

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Officers hunting for alleged police shooter, Dezi Freeman in northeast Victoria’s Porepunkah area are facing challenging weather conditions as a major search enters day five.

Transcript

00:00Just in front of me is Mount Buffalo and she is covered in snow this morning. It's quite a

00:08beautiful sight but unfortunately that sight is closed as this manhunt continues but you can

00:14really feel that icy air off the snow barreling down into the Paupunker Valley below. There's

00:20severe weather warnings forecast for parts of the northeast forecast district for damaging winds

00:26today. There's expected to be blizzard conditions in higher areas and snow forecast down to around

00:32800 meters. There's also the potential for hail and rain today and it's a really cold to boot. It's

00:40currently around four degrees here getting up to around 11 today so that's quite tiring going into

00:46day five for these officers who are on the ground. I actually was speaking to some people in Bright

00:52last night who were looking for food and accommodation because those blizzard conditions

00:57were so bad that parts of the Great Alpine Road between Harrietville and Mount Hotham were closed

01:03so that gives you an indication of just how tough the weather is but with 450 police officers still

01:09on the ground here as part of this search Victoria Police have reaffirmed that despite this awful

01:15weather they are committed and won't rest until Desi Freeman is in custody. All right Erin we know

01:21that some arrests were made in relation to this case last night in Paupunker well on Thursday night

01:27in Paupunker. What are the details with those arrests? That's right so police took two people into custody

01:36on Thursday night from an address in Paupunker. Yesterday they did confirm that the 42 year old woman

01:43is Desi Freeman's wife and the 15 year old boy who was taken into custody is his son. They have since

01:50been released without charge but police have warned the public that anyone thinking of assisting Desi

01:57Freeman should not do that and they could face criminal charges if they do. We also know that

02:03residents in Paupunker were told to stay indoors when this manhunt first started early in the week.

02:10We know that there were some people who were quite scared. The whole town was in lockdown.

02:13What's the mood like today as the you know as we enter this fifth day of this manhunt?

02:22Yes well well the ABC here locally were among the first people on the ground on Tuesday and the fear

02:28really was palpable in the community. We spoke with parents who were in tears picking up their children.

02:35It was incredibly tense but five days of this is quite wearing on the community and yesterday the

02:42Victoria Police did give the green light for residents to start going cautiously about their

02:48everyday business. They had previously been told to stay inside but the thing with Paupunker is it is

02:54really a place that capitalizes on snow tourism and there's currently a major snow dump of the season

03:01just happening on the Alps here. So they're also looking to make the most of that but police are

03:07warning anyone traveling to the area still really should avoid Paupunker. There is still an active

03:13manhunt underway.

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended