ITALIAN police raided the quarters of the Austrian Winter Olympic biathlon and cross-country skiing teams late last night in a search for banned drugs. Out-of-competition drugs tests were also conducted on 15 athletes.

The raids were the result of a tip-off to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) that a coach banned for blood doping offences at the Salt Lake City Games four years ago might be in the lodgings.

“The IOC has acted on information it received in a report by the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) which indicates the possible presence of Walter Mayer in the accommodation of the Austrian biathlon and cross-country teams,” it said.

Mayer was banned from all Olympic activities up to and including the next winter Games in Vancouver in four years’ time.

Alfred Eder, a coach for the all-male Austrian biathlon team, said police searched and interviewed athletes for four hours at the team’s lodgings in San Sicaro and Pragelato. “We are very angry,” he said. “It is not very gentlemanly.”

Just before 1am, two men were led away from San Sicaro by police. One was wearing Olympic accreditation and the other had his head covered.

No Austrian athlete has won a medal in any of the biathlon or cross-country events in Turin, the best performance being Wolfgang Perner’s fourth place in the men’s biathlon 10km sprint.

Events at the Games involving cross-country have been overshadowed by 12 athletes being suspended from racing because their blood had abnormal levels of haemoglobin. The sport’s governing body treats such tests as assessing health, but they are regarded by anti-doping bodies as a proxy for detecting drug use.

Last week Olga Pyleva, a Russian who won silver at the women’s 15km individual biathlon, became the first athlete to test positive at the Games, when the stimulant carphedon was detected in her urine.

Italy has strict doping laws that treat offences as a criminal matter. It refused to relax them for the Olympics despite the overtures of the IOC, which wants only non-penal sanctions for drugs cheats.