A police car has crashed into a house in Melbourne's north during an operation to arrest an escapee.

Police went to a home at Fawkner today to arrest a 30-year-old Albion man who had escaped from Castlemaine Police Station on October 8.

The man drove away and collided with a police car, which crashed through a fence and into the side of a house.

He fled the scene and dumped the car but was eventually arrested in the backyard of a home at Fawkner.

The man is being questioned by police.

No-one was injured during the incident.