A police officer from Wimbledon has become the 60th person to be arrested as part of the Met’s investigation into corruption within its own ranks.

A 50-year-old man was arrested at about 6am by detectives from the Metropolitan Police’s Operation Elveden, set up in the wake of the phone hacking scandal at News International, the publisher of the now defunct News of the World.

The man is a Met police officer in the Territorial police command, based in a south London borough.

He is being interviewed at a south London police station while a search of his property is carried out.

It comes as a result of information provided to police by the Rupert Murdoch-led company’s management and standards committee, after journalists were accused of hacking the voicemails of celebrities, public figures and victims of crime, such as murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler.

The scandal prompted Mr Murdoch to close the News of the World, a sister Sunday newspaper of The Sun, although he would later launch The Sun on Sunday.

Operation Elveden is the Met's inquiry into allegations of inappropriate payments to police and public officials.

It is being supervised by the Independent Police Complaints Commission and is running in conjunction with Operation Weeting, a separate investigation into phone hacking.

Tom Crone, the former head lawyer at News International, was arrested at his home in west Wimbledon in August as part of Operation Weeting.

Mr Crone, a former Wimbledon College student, was not charged and has always denied involvement in phone hacking.