German police are searching for a cyclist who filmed a dying man after a road accident instead of going to his aid.

Police say the cyclist could be prosecuted for failing to assist the 29-year-old who had crashed his motorbike into a lamp post. He was later pronounced dead at the scene of the accident in Heidenheim near Ulm in southern Germany.

The cyclist, who is is thought to be in his early 20s, filmed the aftermath of the accident on his mobile phone and continued to do so when an ambulance crew arrived. When medical staff complained that he was hampering their work, he refused to leave or stop filming. He fled just before police arrived.

Police said the case served to highlight the problem of “gawpers”, or “gaffers” as they are known in Germany, who slow down or stop their vehicles to film accidents on their phones, often publishing pictures or videos of them on social media.

In July, German rescue services said gawpers had impeded their access to victims of a bus crash in Bavaria and speculated that they may have reached them sooner had drivers, who were concentrated on capturing the scene on their mobile phones, not failed to open a corridor to allow their emergency vehicles through. Eighteen people died in the ensuing blaze.

The cyclist involved in Sunday night’s incident was caught on a motorist’s dash cam, and police are now trying to track the cyclist down using the footage.

The German psychologist Wolfgang Krüger said the “gaffer” phenomenon was nothing new, but had been given a new lease of life thanks to smartphones.

“Sensation-seeking is the simplest way to bring a bit of excitement into one’s life,” he told the Hamburger Morgenpost. The thrill factor is only heightened when photos or film footage are posted online, he said. “Sensation-seeking is nothing new. In the middle ages people made pilgrimages to watch people hanging from the gallows.”