An off-duty Swedish police officer successfully arrested a violent fugitive drug dealer while both men were naked in a Stockholm sauna, public broadcaster SVT has reported.

The unnamed officer had just sat down when he spotted the wanted man, who had been on the run since receiving a prison sentence for assorted drugs offences and aggravated assault against a public official.

“He never showed up to serve his sentence, so was naturally on a wanted list,” said Christoffer Bohman, deputy chief of police in the Stockholm suburb of Rinkeby. “This officer was off duty, and by coincidence – and somewhat comically – both men recognised each other in the sauna.”

Bohman praised the officer for his calm response to what could otherwise have become a particularly heated confrontation, saying the arrest was effected in a thoroughly professional and undramatic manner.

“It’s obviously much easier to act when you have colleagues with you, plus all the right tools and equipment,” he said. “This was about as stripped-back and bare-bones an arrest as it is possible to make, in several senses of the term.”

Bohman also paid tribute to the officer in a Facebook post, describing him as a “top colleague who kept a cool head even when things were hotting up to a potentially dangerous situation, and despite being on your day off and in a sauna.”

The arrest was carried out “with due consideration to the best interests of all concerned”, he said, adding: “We are everywhere. Even if you do not see us, we are there.” The wanted criminal will now serve his sentence, Bohman said.