Former Nazi camp secretary in German trial, 96, on the run

A judicial officer in the court room in Itzehoe, Germany, looks at his watch prior to the trial (Markus Schreiber, Pool/AP)

An arrest warrant has been issued for the former secretary of an SS commander in charge of a concentration camp after she skipped the planned start of her trial in Germany on more than 11,000 counts of accessory to murder, officials have said.

The 96-year-old woman left the home where she lives in a taxi on Thursday morning, heading for an underground station on the outskirts of Hamburg, German news agency dpa quoted Itzehoe state court spokeswoman Frederike Milhoffer as saying.