Three men have been arrested on suspicion of intercepting telephone calls at the official residence of the heir to the British throne, Prince Charles, London police said yesterday.
The royal correspondent for top-selling Sunday newspaper The News of the World is among the three suspects, the paper said.
The alleged phone tapping may have compromised the security of members of the Royal Family and other public figures outside the royal circle, Scotland Yard said.
"As a result of their inquiries police now believe that public figures beyond the Royal Household have had their telephones intercepted, which may have potential security implications," police said in a statement.
British media speculated that the alleged tapping may have involved phone calls of government ministers.
The three men, aged 35, 48 and 50, were arrested early yesterday in the London area and are being held at a police station in the capital. Scotland Yard's terrorism branch is leading the investigation.
The News of the World, which frequently dedicates its front pages to "scoops" or exclusives on the Royal Family, said its royal correspondent Clive Goodman had been detained and was being questioned by police. The Daily Mail today reported allegations that Mr. Goodman listened to dozens of messages left by senior courtiers at palace.
Three members of staff at Charles's Clarence House residence initially alerted the police to the alleged tapping in December of last year.
The alleged security breaches took place "over a significant period," the police statement added. They raise questions about royal security at a time of a heightened terrorist threat.
"Police launched an investigation after concerns were reported to the Met's [Metropolitan Police] Royalty Protection Department by members of the Royal Household at Clarence House," a police spokeswoman said.
"It is focused on alleged repeated security breaches within telephone networks over a significant period of time and the potential impact this may have on protective security around a number of individuals."
Police officers have not yet established how many people have been affected, and have not ruled out the possibility that other royal households could have had their phone conversations intercepted, or that the tapped conversations involved members of the Royal Family.
A security source told the Daily Mail, "Detectives believe there has been a concerted and deliberate campaign to eavesdrop on highly confidential phone messages at Buckingham Palace. The aim was to find out some of the most personal and potentially damaging details about royal life."
The investigation has gone beyond Clarence House to other public figures, apparently including one member of Parliament, according to Britain's domestic Press Association.
Television station ITV reported that other public figures who could have been affected included high-profile celebrities and cabinet-level ministers, though not Prime Minister Tony Blair, a claim the Metropolitan Police declined to comment on.
The Press Association also said the allegations did not relate to the interception of live telephone calls, but another method of telephone interception or hacking of phones, citing unnamed sources. It added that the tapping was of mobile phones, and not land lines.
The investigation is being handled by the Metropolitan Police's Anti-Terrorist Branch because of the security implications of the phone-tapping allegations. Officers from the Specialist Crime Directorate are also involved.
But this would not be the first time that the Royal Family has been the subject of telephone tapping.
Prince Charles, his wife Camilla Parker Bowles and his former wife Diana, Princess of Wales, were targeted by phone-tappers in the past, resulting in embarrassing details of their complex private lives being thrust into the public domain.
A tape of a conversation between Charles and Camilla revealed an intimate relationship between the two while Charles was married to Diana.
Diana's close relationship with a male friend while she was married to Charles was also exposed by a phone-tapper. James Gilbey told Diana he loved her and affectionately called her Squidgy.
Those conversations were taped by hackers using radio scanners.
A Clarence House spokesman declined to comment on the arrests.
