London: Continuing with its crackdown, Scotland Yard on Thursday arrested four journalists in dawn raids here as part of its inquiries into the phone-hacking scandal.
One woman and three men, all in their mid or late 40s and believed to be current or former journalists of UK`s `Sunday Mirror` tabloid, were held at various south London addresses over a suspected conspiracy to intercept telephone voice mails at the newspaper group.
"They are being interviewed at various police stations in London and searches are being carried out at a number of addresses," the Metropolitan police said in a statement here on Thursday.
"Detectives on Operation Weeting have identified and are investigating a suspected conspiracy to intercept telephone voice mails at Mirror Group Newspapers."
"It is believed it mainly concerned the `Sunday Mirror` newspaper and at this stage the primary focus is on the years 2003 and 2004."
"This conspiracy is being treated as a separate conspiracy to the two being investigated at the now defunct `News of the World`s newspaper," the statement added.
Operation Weeting was launched by the Met police in 2011 following allegations of phone hacking by journalists, mainly at Rupert Murdoch`s erstwhile Sunday newspaper `News of the World`.
The investigation is running alongside Operation Elveden, a probe into illegal payments to public officials, and Operation Tuleta, which is looking at computer hacking and other privacy breaches.
Over 100 arrests have been made in relation to all three operations, including a number of former `News of the World` journalists as well as former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks and British Prime Minister David Cameron`s former Downing Street communications chief Andy Coulson.
Following the latest arrests, the police said it would be making contact with people they believe have been victims of the "conspiracy to intercept telephone communications contrary to the Criminal Law Act 1997" in due course.
PTI
