Police arrest Greek far-right Golden Dawn party leader

The leader of Greece's Golden Dawn party has been arrested in a crackdown on the group launched after the murder of a leftist musician, a police source told Sky News.

Nikos Michaloliakos, 56, was arrested along with Golden Dawn lawmaker and spokesman Ilias Kassidiairis and two other party members on charges of belonging to a "criminal organisation".

Arrest warrants have been issued for at least five other MPs and dozens of members of the party, which has 18 lawmakers in parliament.

Greece launched a crackdown on the party after the fatal stabbing of 34-year-old anti-fascist hip-hop artist Pavlos Fyssas on September 18. allegedly by a self-confessed neo-Nazi.

On Friday, Michaloliakos threatened to pull the party's 18 lawmakers out of parliament, a move that would prompt by-elections in 15 regions around the country.

The by-elections could hurt the coalition government of Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, which has a slim majority of 155 MPs in the 300-seat parliament.

Golden Dawn was voted into parliament for the first time in 2012 elections, amid widespread anger over structural reforms international creditors have imposed on the debt-wracked country.