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A 42-year-old British man, known only as AJL, who has spent a decade on the run has been arrested in Spain on suspicion of mowing down a local officer near the Gibraltar border Getty

A British man who has spent a decade on the run has been arrested in Spain on suspicion of mowing down a local officer.

The 42-year-old, known only as AJL, was detained in the small village of Guadacorte, close to Spain's border with Gibraltar, a British Overseas Territory on its southern coast.

The arrest came not far from the border town of La Linea where police say the British man was involved in a violent incident with two local officers in 2007, which ended with one policeman being run over.

Full details of the crash have not been revealed, but the officer is understood to have been badly injured in the car crash.

The Briton appeared in a La Linea court on Monday (20 November) on a European Arrest Warrant.

Police say they received a tip-off in September that AJL lived in the suburbs around the border towns of Palmones and Los Barrios, and concentrated searches in these areas.

Detectives eventually recognised the Briton on his way the shops in Guadacorte and arrested him.

They told the court the Brit was in possession of a fake driving licence and ID card. Officers added that he also had access to a number of different cars which he used in order to avoid detection.