News reporter Rhodri Phillips arrested at his home in north London on suspicion of handling stolen goods

This article is more than 8 years old

This article is more than 8 years old

A journalist at the Sun has been arrested in north London by police from Scotland Yard's Operation Tuleta, which is investigating breaches of privacy including computer hacking.

He is understood to be Rhodri Phillips, a news reporter at the paper.

The Metropolitan police said the 35-year-old man was held at his home at 6.30am on Thursday on suspicion of handling stolen goods.

There was confusion about the grounds for the arrest, as Scotland Yard initially said the arrest was connected to allegations of criminal breaches of privacy.

Sources at Sun publisher News International said the arrest may have been linked to an incident last year when Philips worked as night reporter when a reader phoned in claiming to have found a mobile phone on a train they believed belonged to an MP.

Colleagues on the paper are furious about the arrest and say the paper has been handed information and lost items "since 1969" when Murdoch bought the title.

"If we have to stop taking calls like this and checking out the information that is being put to us, we might as well pack up and go home," said one journalist on the paper. "This is just getting ridiculous."

The move has reawakened the anger in the Sun newsroom felt in February when Trevor Kavanagh, the paper's associate editor, said there was "a feeling of being under siege" after five Sun journalists were arrested – and bailed – in relation to Scotland Yard's Operation Elveden investigation into allegations of inappropriate payments to public officials for stories. "The witch-hunt has put us behind ex-Soviet states on free press," he said.

Top Gear presenter and Sun columnist Jeremy Clarkson posted on Facebook: "Half the police are at the Olympics and the other half are busy arresting journalists. I may do some burglary."

News International chief executive Tom Mockridge confirmed in an email to staff that he was "afraid that another of our journalists from the Sun has been arrested this morning".

Phillips is the seventh person to be held by the Metropolitan police under Operation Tuleta, which was launched in July last year as a splinter investigation to the probe into phone hacking.

The Met has 19 officers working on Operation Tuleta, compared with 96 officers officers and civilian personnel on Operation Weeting and 70 on Operation Elveden, the investigation into payments by journalists to police and public officials.

Scotland Yard described the Tuleta probe as "an investigation into a number of allegations referring to breaches of privacy which fall outside the remit of Operation Weeting. This includes computer hacking."

• To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediatheguardian.com or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication".

• To get the latest media news to your desktop or mobile, follow MediaGuardian on Twitter and Facebook