Michael Schumacher

Berlin: Swiss police have been forced to intervene outside the home of Michael Schumacher, as intense media interest in the fate of the Formula One star continues.

Photographers and camera crews camped outside Schumacher’s villa on the shore of Lake Geneva waiting for a glimpse of the injured driver were ordered to move on.

Schumacher finally returned to his family home in the town of Gland earlier this week, nine months after the skiing accident that nearly killed him.

But he has returned to intense security, such is the level of scrutiny the family has been forced to endure since his accident.

Local police have had to send patrols to the house on two occasions, in addition to 24-hour private security guards employed by the Shumacher family.

One Russian TV crew even attempted to mount a continuous live broadcast from outside the house, until police asked them to move on, according to the German newspaper Bild.

“The police have told some journalists who were on the private property of Michael Schumacher to move to the public domain,” a spokesman for the Vaud police, Pierre-Olivier Gaudard, told reporters. “This took place in a friendly atmosphere.”

Schumacher’s manager, Sabine Kehm, has repeatedly called for the public and media to respect the family’s privacy as the injured driver continues his recovery.

But that has not stopped a series of disturbing incidents that are thought to have left the family badly shaken. While Schumacher was still in intensive care in a hospital in Grenoble, a reporter disguised himself as a priest to try and gain access to his bedside.

A 12-page medical report on Schumacher’s condition was leaked to the press.

A man being questioned by Swiss police on suspicion of being behind the leak is believed to have committed suicide, after he was found hanged in his cell.

The family have also been forced to endure public speculation about Schumacher’s chances of recovery, from his former Formula One doctor among others.

Kehm, warned that his return home this week did not necessarily mean there had been any dramatic improvement in his conditions.

“Police simply had to intervene once or twice, just to make people take notice of traffic problems, because there were journalists who were badly parked, people who were being perhaps a bit too insistent at the gates, but nothing in particular was nasty and everything happened in a very civil way,” the police spokesman said.

Schumacher’s home, where he lives with his wife and two children, is being guarded by a private security firm and police said they would not make any “particular deployment” to the house unless called.

“For the time being, yes (we plan to leave things in the hands of the private security firm). Of course, the estate, the home of Schumacher is managed by private security,” the spokesman added.

The seven-time world Formula One champion returned home on Tuesday to continue his rehabilitation after suffering a brain injury in December during a ski accident in the French Alps resort of Meribel.

Schumacher was taken from the nearby CHUV hospital in Lausanne to his villa without any medical complications.

His manager has asked for the family to be left in peace and warned there was still a “long and difficult road ahead” for Schumacher.

Earlier in May, there were reports that Schumacher’s wife Corinna had spent around £10million to build a fully equipped medical suite in their family home, so her husband can leave the hospital. The reports, however, could not be confirmed.