Julian Assange policing has cost £11m, claims the Met

Julian Assange's years cooped up inside the Ecuadorian embassy could have cost the country as much as £11m in additional policing costs, it has emerged.

Today marks the three-year anniversary of the controversial figure's political asylum inside the embassy in Knightsbridge, London.

Scotland Yard has revealed the amount it has cost to constantly station police following a request by ITV News.

Between June 2012 and April 2015, £6.5m has been spent on "opportunity costs" - paying officers who might have been otherwise engaged.

Some £2.7m has gone on "additional costs", such as overtime as a direct result of officer deployments.

A further £1.9m has been spent on "indirect costs", bringing the estimated total to £11.1m.

A Met Police spokesperson said: "The costs provided are an estimate based on averages, as actual salary and overtime costs will vary daily."

Assange is inside the embassy to avoid being deported to Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning over sex allegations by two women, which he denies.

He fears that if he travels to Sweden he will be moved to the United States for questioning over the activities of whistle-blowing website Wikileaks.