LONDON - British police arrested a former senior figure at Rupert Murdoch's News International group on Tuesday as part of their probe into phone hacking at the News of the World tabloid, media reports said.

Police said a 71-year-old man had been arrested on suspicion of corruption and conspiring to intercept communications after he arrived by appointment at a north London police station.

Sky News, part-owned by News Corp , named the man as 71-year-old Stuart Kuttner, a former managing editor of the News of the World.  

There was no immediate comment from News International.

Detectives are probing allegations that journalists illegally intercepted voicemail messages on mobile phones and also paid bribes to police in return for information.

The latest suspect was the 11th person to be arrested as part of an investigation that has shaken Britain's press, police and political leaders and forced a series of high profile resignations. One of those arrested has since been released without charge.

The News of the World, whose reporters were at the centre of the scandal, was closed last month after allegations that 4,000 phones, including that of a murdered schoolgirl, had been hacked.

Former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks, a former editor of the News of the World, also quit and was arrested last month.  

London's police chief Paul Stephenson and Britain's most senior counter-terrorism officer John Yates have also resigned over criticism the police should have done more to investigate the hacking allegations.

The furore has also caused embarrassment for Prime Minister David Cameron as his former media chief Andy Coulson has also been arrested. He was editor of the News of the World when a journalist on the paper was convicted of hacking the phones of aides to Britain's royal family in 2007.