Assange held in London's Belmarsh prison: source

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is being held in London's high-security Belmarsh prison which has housed some of Britain's most notorious inmates, a legal source told AFP Friday.

The Sun newspaper had earlier reported that Assange had been taken to Wandsworth Prison following his dramatic arrest at Ecuador's embassy in London on Thursday.

Meanwhile in Australia, Foreign Minister Marise Payne said consular officials would try to visit Assange, a 47-year-old Australian citizen, on Friday.

The Australian High Commission in London could not confirm or deny whether the visit had gone ahead.

The prison in southeast London became one of the country's best-known jails after Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs and career criminal Charles Bronson -- dubbed "the most violent prisoner in Britain" -- were held there.

Opened in 1991 next to Woolwich Crown Court, it has frequently been used in high-profile national security cases.

Among those to have called its cells home is former Finsbury Park Mosque