UK EXCLUSIVE: Shotgun and knives in sophisticated survival kit found near cliff where Beast of Kavos

A SOPHISTICATED survival kit with a loaded shotgun and arsenal of weapons was found in the area where serial rapist the Beast of Kavos is thought to have hidden for two weeks, police have revealed.

Police in Greece released this image (above) of an array of items found near the hideout of Dimitris Aspiotis, 47, at the Corfu coast near Lefkimi.

He was arrested on Saturday after trying to flee and falling about 100ft down a cliff, into a ravine, injuring his limbs and spine.

Giorgos Konstantis, Ionian Islands Regional Police Press Officer, said: "From searches carried out in the wider area around the location where the accused was found, and from a search of his person, police found, amongst other items, a single-barreled shotgun, two cartridges, knives, pocket knives and survival equipment.

"He was found in possession of a pouch with two mobile phones."

FALL: The cliff showing where Aspiotis fell 100 feet (Greek Police)

Nearby police found and seized a loaded single-barreled shotgun with another cartridge, three knives and two pocket knives with 15 to 20cm blades, four power banks, two screwdrivers, an oil lamp, small spotlight, a rechargeable torch, a solar panel with cables to charge mobile phones, three phone chargers, a camouflage backpack and sleeping bag, another mobile phone, spare clothes, gloves and a small sum of cash.

Corfu Police Chief Yiannoulis said: "Police officers arrested the Greek man for whom there was an arrest warrant for the kidnap and rape of a woman of foreign nationality on the night of May 5.

"The woman, whose disappearance was reported by her partner and who was found by a Lefkimmi police patrol car on the morning of May 9, reported that the accused man forced her to go with him to a wooded area in Lefkimmi on the night of Tuesday May 5 and then repeatedly raped her at knifepoint and forced her to commit other indecent acts."

SNARED: An injured Beast of Kavos is stretchered from the scene (Kerkyrasimera.gr)

He said more than 100 police officers had been involved in the two-week search.

He added: "When the accused spotted the police ready to ambush him in a wooded area in Paleohori, Lefkimmi, he tried to escape and jumped into a crevasse, injuring his limbs and spine.

The land area around the spot was immediately ringed off by at least 50 officers and the assistance of Corfu Coastguard was also requested as the coastline was precipitous there. "With the assistance of Corfu Fire Department and the Ambulance Service the man was pulled out and taken to Corfu Hospital, where he is now hospitalised."

It is understood he may have broken his spine, a leg and hip and ruptured a kidney in the fall.

BEAST: Dimitris Aspiotis takes a selfie with girls in the background in Kavos (Facebook)

Rescuers took three hours to stretcher him out from the remote spot.

He added: "Corfu Police are conducting the interrogation and the charges against him have been passed to the Corfu Prosecutor."

Aspiotis got the "Beast of Kavos" name after he carried out a string of attacks on British tourists and holiday workers at the Corfu resort.

He had been in hiding since a 34-year-old Albanian woman alleged he kept her hostage and raped her at knifepoint over a few days before she was found in a hut on Saturday, May 9. She had been reported missing by her husband days earlier after she vanished from their home in the nearby town of Lefkimi.

Last August the Sunday Express exposed how Aspiotis had been let out of a 52-year jail term, he received in December 2012, 43 years early and was back roaming bars around the popular holiday resort, with tourists given no warnings.

PROFILE: Dimitris Aspiotis in a recent Facebook post (Facebook)

He was convicted of raping seven women, but it is believed the true number of victims could be much higher.

Before his arrest in August 2010, Aspiotis managed to evade capture for ten days by hiding in woods and hills around the resort, that he knows like the "back of his hand," according to Greek media.

In a Greek TV interview that Aspiotis did before the new allegations he said he was a changed man.

He told the Sunday Express last year he would never rape again after getting off drugs. Last year, the Greek Ministry of Justice had refused to confirm his early under a controversial new law to ease prison overcrowding. It is believed the Greek authorities were reluctant to give any official warnings about Aspiotis’s release due to fears of the effect on tourism.