Six arrested in Murdoch tabloid phone-hacking probe

Detectives investigating phone hacking at Rupert Murdoch's News of the World arrested six people on Tuesday on suspicion of perverting the course of justice, London police said.

Five men aged between 38 and 49 and one 43-year-old woman were arrested in dawn raids in London and other areas in southern England.

The coordinated arrests were made by officers from Operation Weeting, the Metropolitan Police inquiry into the phone-hacking of voicemail boxes, a police statement said.

"All six -- five men and one woman -- were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice."

Police investigating phone hacking by journalists at the scandal-hit News of the World, the British tabloid shut down by Murdoch in July, have arrested dozens of people during the past year.

News International, the publisher of the News of the World, did not immediately have a comment on whether those arrested were members of staff.