Mafia 'boss of bosses' Salvatore 'Toto' Riina has died while serving multiple life sentences, according to Italian media.

The justice ministry on Thursday had allowed his family a bedside visit at a hospital in Parma shortly before his death. The reports said he died aged 87 on Friday morning but the government had no immediate comment.

He had been placed in a medically induced coma after his health deteriorated following two recent surgeries.

Riina, one of Sicily's most notorious Mafia bosses, was serving 26 life sentences for murder convictions as a powerful Cosa Nostra boss.

He was captured in Palermo, Sicily's capital, in 1993 and imprisoned under a law that requires strict security for top mobsters, including isolation in prison and limited time outside their cells.