Italian mobster arrested after 17 years on the run

A veteran Italian mobster was arrested after 17 years on the run, but a crowd cheered him as he was escorted out of a police station.

Giovanni Tegano, a member of the 'Ndrangheta organised crime group, was on the list of Italy's top 30 most wanted fugitives.

Officials described the 70-year-old as a notorious figure in the crime-ridden area and hailed his arrest as a tough blow to the crime syndicate, based in the poor region of Calabria and considered more powerful than the Sicilian Mafia.

Police cordoned off the cheering crowd of scores of people as Tegano was leaving the police headquarters in Reggio Calabria, southern Italy.

Tegano was implicated in a turf war in the mid-1980s that left scores dead, and has been convicted and sentenced to life in jail in absence.

He was apprehended on Monday evening in a house on the hills surrounding Reggio Calabria, the regional capital. Also arrested were five men who were with him and are accused of helping him during his years as a fugitive.