Greece’s third-most-wanted criminal was arrested in Haidari, western Athens, at noon yesterday after falling into a police ambush.

Michalis Makriyiannis had been on the run since August 2006 after escaping from Crete’s Alicarnassos Prison where he had been serving three life sentences for five murders and three attempted murders.

Police cars cornered Makriyiannis in a stolen BMW along with two suspected accomplices.

One of the two suspects is Constantinos Polydorou, a serial robber behind a series of bank raids in the 1990s, whose apartment in Haidari Makriyiannis is believed to have been staying in.

Officers said they had been watching the car for several days and that the men probably had been planning a bank robbery following the discovery of two automatic machine guns and several hand grenades in the car. The three men are believed to be behind a recent string of robberies, mostly in western Attica.

Officers described the arrest as “historic.” “This success will boost the morale of those on the force,” a senior officer told Kathimerini.