Billionaire Flick taken by body-snatchers

The body of billionaire German industrialist Friedrich Karl Flick, whose family fortune was built on Nazi slave labour, has been removed from its mausoleum in an apparent attempt to extort money from his widow.

An oak coffin containing Flick, who died in 2006 aged 79 leaving his widow Ingrid four of his six billion pound fortune, was taken from the family plot at Velden am Woertherse, Austria, last weekend.

During his life Flick, who inherited his fortune from his father who served three of a seven-year sentence after being convicted of war crimes at the Nurenberg tribunal, always feared being kidnapped. He hired security guards to protect himself and his family, but this did not stop his brother and sister-in-law being seized. They were returned on payment of a £3.5m ransom.

As yet no approach has been made to Ingrid, who was Flick's third wife, and the local police will only say that the background behind the body-snatch is "murky". ·