Police have cordoned off a section of woodland in Altdorf near Nuremberg in the southern German state of Bavaria as they search for an armed man who earlier threatened a firefighter. They called on local residents of the town of some 17,000 inhabitants to avoid the area adjacent to the A3 motorway, which has been closed to traffic in both directions. A special police unit had been deployed a police spokeswoman said. No casualties had been reported, she said. Two fires, one in a house and the other in the woodland, had been reported earlier.