'Dr Death' died a long time ago

One of the most wanted Nazi war criminals, Aribert Heim or "Doctor Death", thought by Nazi-hunters to be in his 90s and in South America, actually died in Cairo in 1992, German TV reported on Wednesday.

Heim was wanted for killing hundreds of concentration camp victims with horrific medical experiments, including performing operations without anesthetics and injecting petrol directly into their hearts.

The Baden-Wuerttemberg state police unit that investigates Nazi-era crimes said yesterday it would request Egyptian authorities to allow them to pursue the case in Cairo, unit spokesman Horst Haug said. "We want to attempt to find the body," Haug said.