A 31-year-old Russian national has been arrested for attacking and robbing Italian villagers in a province in northeast Italy, dressed head to toe in black and wielding a bow and arrow, Italian police said.

According to police, Igor Vaclavic would dress up in a Ninja outfit come nightfall, don a mask and arm himself with a bow and arrow before setting out for isolated farms near the town of Rovigo.

Having picked out a target, the "Ninja" bandit would attack the owners, threatening to shoot everyone with his medieval weapon and demanding gold, jewelry and money.

Reports of the raids so panicked the district that villagers would barricade themselves inside their farms at night, although that did not save some of them. Vaclavic would reportedly smash windows with a volley of arrows, and break in letting out blood-curdling yells.

Having taken everything of value, he would just as suddenly disappear into the night.

Despite staking out the area for weeks, police were unable to apprehend the mysterious samurai - until Monday, when the residents of a farm that proved to be Vaclavic's last hit armed themselves with knives and pitchforks and counterattacked when he appeared.

Although Vaclavic just barely managed to escape with his life, he was soon caught by the police and jailed to await formal charges.

"In all my years of service, I have never seen anything like this - not once," one of the arresting Carabinieri said.