A Moroccan man has been arrested in Italy over the Tunisia museum massacre that left 21 tourists dead after fleeing across the Mediterranean on a migrant boat.

The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the March attack on the Bardo Museum in the capital Tunis which killed British mother Sally Adey.

Abdel Majid Touil , 22, was arrested at the home where he lives with his mother and brothers in Gaggiano, near Milan last night.

The accusations listed in the Tunisian arrest warrant include premeditated murder, conspiracy to commit attacks against the internal security of the state, belonging to a terrorist group and recruiting and training others to commit terrorist attacks, police said.

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Held by terror police: Moroccan national Abdel Majid Touil (above) has been arrested in Italy over the Tunisia museum massacre that left 21 tourists dead after fleeing across the Mediterranean on a migrant boat

A CCTV image shows two of the gunmen who attacked Tunisia's National Bardo Museum in March holding their guns in a room as a man runs away. Two attackers were shot dead, while a third went on the run. Italian police today said they had arrested a Moroccan suspect in the northern Italian town of Gaggiano

The room in Gaggiano, near Milan, Italy, where Abdelmajid Touil was arrested on Tuesday evening

He arrived in Porto Empedocle in Sicily on a migrant boat on February 17 using the alias Abdullah , but received an expulsion order demanding he leave Italy within 15 days.

From that moment, he disappeared before re-emerging in Tunisia where the authorities maintain he was personally involved in both the planning and the execution of the attacks.

The Tunisians claim that he was also involved in recruiting jihadis.

He then disappeared again and managed to re-enter Italy despite the expulsion order.

Police were able to identify him in part after his mother reported that her son's passport was missing immediately after the Bardo attack.

Bruno Megale of the anti-terrorism Digos police said: 'He did not appear to frequent mosques close to fundamentalism in Italy and was unknown to us apart from the deportation order before the intelligence came from the Tunisian authorities.'

Touil arrived in Porto Empedocle in Sicily on a migrant boat (like the one above) in February, but received an expulsion order. The timing of his arrival in Italy suggests he was allegedly involved in planning the attack

A view of the building in Gaggiano, near Milan, where Abdel Majid Touil was arrested by terror police

Prosecutor Bruno Megale speaks during during a press conference by Italian police in Milan about the arrest of a Moroccan man, Abdel Majid Touil

Extradition procedures will now begin, it is understood, but Tunisia could face difficulties because the death penalty could be imposed for the crimes of which he is accused.

A neighbour in Gaggiano claimed Touil could not have taken part in the attacks in Tunis in March because he had been in Italy at the time.

The woman told ANSA news agency: ‘He is a good kid. You are making a serious mistake.

'He has done nothing. At the time of the attack he was here. He is looking for work.'

His brother has also told investigators that Touil was in Italy at the times of the shooting.

Terrified: Tourists and visitors from the Bardo museum are evacuated in Tunis after gunmen opened fire

Blood stains on the ground as journalists and security forces stand at the visitors entrance of the National Bardo Museum in Tunis on March 19 in the aftermath of an attack on foreign tourists in the Tunisian capital

News of his arrest follows warnings by Libyan authorities that ISIS militias in Libya are using migrant boats to smuggle jihadis into Europe.

A police spokesman said: ' A Moroccan national, wanted internationally, was arrested yesterday evening in a town in the Milan region.

'The Tunisian authorities suspect him of having taken part in the Bardo attack.'

Mother-of-two Sally Adey was killed in the terror attack on the Bardo National Museum in Tunis, dying off wounds to her stomach and pelvis

Milan's prefecture was expected to provide more details at a press conference later in the day.

The Bardo attack on March 18 in the capital Tunis killed 22 people in total.

Two Tunisian assailants who had shot tourists as they got off buses outside the museum were gunned down at the scene after taking hostages inside the museum.

Tunisia's President Beji Caid Essebsi said a few days after the attack that a third gunman was on the run.

ISIS claimed responsibly for the massacre, the deadliest involving foreigners in Tunisia since a 2002 suicide bombing on the island of Djerba.

The terror group issued a statement and audio on jihadi websites applauding the dead gunmen as 'knights' for their 'blessed invasion of one of the dens of infidels and vice in Muslim Tunisia'.

The government said the two gunmen had trained in jihadi camps in Libya before the attack inside the heavily secured Tunisian parliament compound.

Among the dead were 17 cruise ship tourists, including British mother-of-two Sally Adey. They also included a Tunisian policeman.

Mrs Adey, 57, from Shropshire, had been on a cruise of the Mediterranean with her husband, Robert, and was on an excursion to the museum.

A coroner ruled at an inquest in March that the the retired solicitor died from wounds to her stomach and pelvis.

Police in Tunisia have arrested five people described as directly tied to the two gunmen.