A man from Vienna returned home from a six-week holiday to find his flat in the 15th district (Rudolfsheim-Fünfhaus) had been occupied by a stranger in his absence, police have confirmed.

The alleged intruder, a 30-year-old Syrian national, fled out of a window as officers arrived, but was later arrested hiding nearby.

The resident, arriving home on Friday, quickly noticed his door lock had been tampered with. Concerned, he called the police, who dispatched the WEGA special unit. Officers forced entry into the flat, which had been locked from the inside, only to find that the intruder had already made an escape.

The suspect apparently fled through an eight-metre-high window into the building’s courtyard, leaving behind shoe marks on the wall and broken branches. Police say he appears to have climbed down the exterior wall and jumped onto a tree below.

A search led officers to a derelict building nearby, where they found the suspect hiding under a blanket in a ground-floor flat. Police also recovered the tenant’s missing mobile phone.

The man, who had no previous police record, was initially detained at the scene. A crowbar suspected to have been used in the break-in was found in the flat. However, following instructions from the Vienna Public Prosecutor’s Office, the suspect was released pending charges on suspicion of burglary.