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Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs has died at the age of 84.

His death comes just months after the 50th anniversary of the notorious heist , which was known as the Crime of the Century.

Twitter account @ronniebiggsnews, which publicises his website and autobiography, tweeted this morning: "Sadly we lost Ron during the night. As always, his timing was perfect to the end. Keep him and his family in your thoughts."

On August 8, 1963, Biggs was part of a a gang led by Bruce Reynolds who stole £2.6 million - equivalent to £45 million today - from the Royal Mail’s travelling Post Office train, intercepting it at 3am in Cheddington, Bucks, as it travelled from Glasgow to London.

Most of the 16-strong gang were rounded up within months and given 30 year prison sentences.

But Biggs, a bit part player in the robbery, escaped from Wandsworth Prison in April 1965 and went on the run for more than 35 years, fleeing to Australia and then Rio de Janeiro.

But in 2001, aged 71 and in failing health after three strokes, Biggs announced he was ending his decades-long exile.

He was penniless and needed vital medical treatment in Britain which he could not afford in Brazil.

Ignoring protests from his family, including son Michael who begged him to reconsider, he sent an email to Scotland Yard informing them that he wanted to give himself up and needed a passport.

He flew back to Britain in May 2001, was immediately arrested on his arrival and found himself back in a dock later that day.

He was transferred to the high-security Belmarsh Prison to continue serving the sentence he had put on hold three-and-a-half decades earlier.

He was released on compassionate grounds in 2009, and had been in poor health for a number of years.

He was last seen in public at a memorial service for Bruce Reynolds in August, and was being cared for at the Carlton Court Care Home in North London.

Speaking earlier this year, Biggs said he was proud to have been part of the gang behind the robbery, and had few regrets about the crime that made him a household name.

Biggs, who could not speak due to his strokes and communicated through a spelling board, said: "If you want to ask me if I have any regrets about being one of the train robbers, my answer is, 'No'.

"I will go further: I am proud to have been one of them. I am equally happy to be described as the 'tea-boy' or 'The Brain'.

"I was there that August night and that is what counts. I am one of the few witnesses - living or dead - to what was 'The Crime of the Century'."

But he did admit to some regrets.

"It is regrettable, as I have said many times, that the train driver was injured," he said.

The train driver Jack Mills, who was coshed, reportedly by Biggs, never fully recovered from the ordeal and died a few years later.

Biggs went on: "And he was not the only victim. The people who paid the heaviest price for the Great Train Robbery are the families. The families of everyone involved in the Great Train Robbery, and from both sides of the track.

"All have paid a price for our collective involvement in the robbery. A very heavy price, in the case of my family.

"For that, I do have my regrets."

Biggs' son Michael, who was born in Brazil but now lives in England, was not immediately available today but had left a message on his phone saying: "For obvious reasons I'm not taking many calls today."