In a breathtaking response to a scandal engulfing his media empire, Rupert Murdoch has moved to close down Britain's biggest selling Sunday newspaper, the News of the World.

The abrupt decision on Thursday to shut down the best-selling tabloid at the center of Britain's phone hacking scandal follows an extraordinary three days in which multiple revelations about intrusive phone hacking cost the paper its advertising base and reader support.

As allegations mounted this week that its journalists had hacked the voicemails of thousands of people, the 168-year-old weekly newspaper says it will publish its last edition on Sunday, without ads.

The tabloid, long known for its dubious undercover reporting techniques, had gravely offended the British public by hacking into the cell phone voicemail of a missing teenage girl, possibly even interfering with the police investigation into her murder.

The tabloid's executives had already admitted the widespread hacking of cell phones used by celebrities, film stars, royal aides and politicians and reached cash settlements with prominent victims.

But tactics used to gather scoops on drug-using celebrities or cheating film stars suddenly became completely unacceptable when missing children, the relatives of soldiers slain in Afghanistan or the families of victims of London's 2005 terror attacks were targeted.

Police are now examining 4,000 names of people who may have been targeted by the paper.

Moreover, the focus of the scandal has shifted to serious allegations of police corruption, with authorities calling Thursday for an independent review of reported payoffs by journalists to police.

A former police commander, told the BBC that journalists make clandestine cash payoffs to police in envelopes.

The British government said there would be public inquiries into the paper and media ethics, and that all those responsible for wrongdoing at the News of the World newspaper should be brought to justice.

Despite difficult times for newspaper circulations, the News of the World is still selling 2.6 million copies a week.

Shuttering the scandal-wracked paper will cost about 200 tabloid staffers their jobs.