Hans Lipschis, a 93-year-old alleged former guard at the Auschwitz extermination camp, has been arrested in southern Germany.

Hans Lipschis was taken into custody in Aalen after prosecutors concluded there was “compelling evidence” that he had been complicit in murder.

He acknowledges he served with the Waffen SS at the camp in occupied Poland, but claims he was only a cook.

Last month, the Simon Wiesenthal Center placed his name as number four on its list of most-wanted Nazis.

The organization accused him of participating in the mass murder and persecution of innocent civilians, primarily Jews, at Auschwitz between October 1941 and 1945.

Hans Lipschis is the first person arrested as a result of a series of new investigations launched by the German authorities into some 50 former Auschwitz guards who are still alive.