A man wanted in Italy for months has been arrested in Spain on suspicion of shooting three people dead there including two police officers.

Norbert Feher, 36, from Serbia, was arrested overnight near Cantavieja, a town in north-east rural Spain.

He is accused of shooting dead a civilian and two Civil Guard police Thursday, a Civil Guard spokesman said.

The police were investigating a shooting earlier this month.

Italy earlier issued a European arrest warrant for Feher over killings and home-invasion robberies, the spokesman said.

He was the subject of an intense manhunt that lasted months after the April killing of a barman and guard in Italy's northern region of Emilia Romagna.

Davide Fabbri was killed on April 1 in the bar where he worked near Bologna, while Valerio Verri was killed days later while on patrol near Ferrara.

Feher also is on trial in absentia in Ferrara for three home-invasion robberies with a gang in 2015 in which the victims were tied-up, blindfolded and beaten.

In one case, they tied up and gagged a 93-year-old man, who was found two days later by his son. They stole a necklace and rings that the victim was wearing.

Two people have already been convicted in the cases and sentenced to 14 and 15 years in prison.

Spanish authorities said Feher is the main suspect in the killing on Thursday of Victor Jesus Caballero and Victor Romero, the two Spanish police who were investigating a December 5 shooting that injured two people in Teruel province.

They and Jose Luis Iranzo, a resident of a nearby town, died after been gunned down by a suspect who then fled, police said.