Austrian drug raid leads to car chase

~ A banned Austrian coach crashed into a police roadblock after the country's cross country ski quarters was raided.

VIENNA, Austria -- The banned Austrian ski coach at the center of a doping investigation at the Turin Olympics crashed his car into a police roadblock Sunday evening after leading authorities on a bizarre chase.

Walter Mayer was slightly injured in the accident, in which he struck an unoccupied police car set up as an impromptu barrier in the town of Paternion in the southwestern province of Carinthia, about 15 miles from the Italian frontier and some 250 miles from Turin, police said. He was taken into protective custody.

Mayer was returning to his native Austria just hours after Italian authorities searched Austria's biathlon and cross-country team quarters for banned substances. Police acted on a tipoff that Mayer -- who was accused of blood doping at the 2002 Olympics while he was Austria's Nordic team coach -- was with the team.

Italian police seized blood analysis equipment during the raids, as well as syringes, vials of distilled water, asthma medication and other substances, the national news agency ANSA reported, quoting unidentified investigative sources. One Austrian athlete threw a bag out of a window containing needles and medicines, and Mayer apparently left the scene in a minivan, ANSA said.

The Austrian Ski Federation said Sunday night it had ended its relationship with Mayer, effective immediately. In a brief statement, federation president Peter Schroecksnadel cited the accident as the reason. He did not elaborate.

In the first ever doping raid by police on Olympic athletes, Italian authorities said they seized materials in the search on the Austrians' private lodgings. Six skiers and four biathletes were rousted and taken for out-of-competition tests by the International Olympic Committee, hours before some were due to compete.

The raids came just before midnight Saturday, when police swarmed a home rented by the biathlon team near the mountain hamlet of San Sicario; a similar search was conducted at quarters in nearby Pragelato. The athletes were taken by IOC doping control officers to nearby Sestriere for tests.

Officers "confiscated material of various origin ... which will have to undergo laboratory analysis," Col. Angelo Agovino, commander of the Carabinieri police force in Turin, said. He did not elaborate.

Heinz Jungwirth, general secretary of the Austrian Olympic Committee, said "certain medicines" were confiscated.

Carabinieri in Turin refused to confirm the reports. No one answered calls at the prosecutor's office, and an Associated Press reporter attempting to enter the building was told to return Monday.

The Austrian cross-country relay team competed Sunday morning in the men's 4x10km relay, finishing last out of 16 teams.

Two biathletes -- Wolfgang Perner and Wolfgang Rottmann -- were kicked off the team after leaving the Olympics following Saturday's raids, Jungwirth told Austrian media. Both had finished their events on Saturday and weren't scheduled to compete again.

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AP Sports Writer Stephen Wilson and Associated Press Writer Ariel David in Turin, Italy, contributed to this report.