Vlad, and the blood-sucking Dracula

Clay figurines representing vampires at a souvenir shop in Romania’s Bran Castle, which is widely taken as the inspiration for the lair of Dracula

CLOAKED in a black cape like the infamous count himself, 10-year-old Niklas Schuetz runs through the dark corridors of a hill-top castle in search of the truth about Dracula.

“He was a Romanian prince, not a vampire,” said the schoolboy, as he tripped by torchlight through the nocturnal gloom of Forchtenstein Castle.