Matteo Messina Denaro, Italian mafia boss who has terrorised the nation and has been on the run for 30 years, has been captured.

More than 100 members of the armed forces were involved in an operation that led to the  arrest of Mr Denaro dubbed the most wanted man in Italy.

Mr Denaro was arrested while receiving medical care in a private hospital in Palermo, Sicily and has since been transported to a secret location.

In 2002, the notorious mafia boss had been sentenced to life imprisonment after the court found him guilty of several murders. He was, however, sentenced in absentia and has refused to turn up to serve his jail term.

He is alleged to be the mastermind behind the 1993 bomb attacks in Milan, Rome and Florence, the murders of Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, who worked as anti-mafia prosecutors.

Mr Denaro was also involved in kidnapping and torture, money laundering, drug trafficking racketeering and other crimes in Italy.

Despite the mafia boss going into hiding since 1993, security forces believed Mr Denaro continued to run his criminal activities through his subordinates whom he gave orders to, from various secret locations.

Security personnel had to depend on technology to reconstruct images of the mafia boss who had very few photos before the police got on his trail.

Giorgia Meloni, Italy’s Prime Minister described Mr Denaro’s capture “a great victory for the state.”