Silvio Berlusconi: former Italian Prime Minister dies aged 86

Silvio Berlusconi, the former Italian Prime Minister, has died at 86 after being admitted to hospital with leukaemia.

According to Italian media he died at the San Raffaele hospital in Milan.

In April he was treated for a lung infection linked to a previously undisclosed case of leukaemia.

Berlusconi rose to the top of Italian politics in the 1990s, first coming to office in 1994 and leading four governments until 2011.

He was a senator and leader of the right-wing Forza Italia party but in recent years his political career was tarnished by a series of scandals.

Charges over the years have included embezzlement, tax fraud and false accounting, and attempting to bribe a judge which were highly public and a regular backdrop during his political career.

This story will continue to be updated with more information.