As we reported earlier, Rebekah Brooks had resigned from News International just the other day.

Things just got much worse for the former News of The Day editor.

Rebekah Brooks has been arrested by police investigating allegations of phone hacking by the News of the World and allegations that police officers were bribed to leak sensitive information.

The Metropolitan police said a 43-year-old woman was arrested at noon on Sunday, by appointment at a London police station.

Brooks, 43, resigned on Friday as News International's chief executive. She is a former News of the World editor and was close to Rupert Murdoch and the prime minister, David Cameron.

A spokesman for Brooks said she did not know she was going to be arrested when she handed in her resignation.

Brooks was taken into custody at midday on Sunday, after agreeing to attend a London police station for questioning. Her spokesman, Bell Pottinger chairman David Wilson, said she did not know she was to meet with police until late on Friday, and that she did not know the appointment would result in her arrest.

The News International chief executive announced her immediate departure from the company on Friday morning. She had agreed to give evidence this coming Tuesday to the culture select committee's inquiry into allegations of phone-hacking at the News of the World.

Her lawyers are currently in discussion with the committee about whether she should attend. Wilson said: "It's left Rebekah in a very difficult position and has left the committee in a very difficult position".

The BBC is reporting that the timing of the arrest undermines what the MP's can ask her at the committee:

Liberal Democrat MP Adrian Sanders, a member of the select committee, questioned the timing of the latest arrest.

"In whose interest was it for this arrest to take place before Tuesday? Because if it does impede what we can ask, that's not going to go down well with my fellow committee members.

"Quite why now, just a few hours before our select committee meets, an arrangement has been made for an arrest. A lot of people are going to think this is very, very odd.

"If this is designed to take the spotlight off the police at the same time giving a shield to Rebekah Brooks, that's a very serious matter indeed. We don't know how much this is going to impede our questioning until we've been able to sit down and talk it through with the parliamentary counsel."

Another member of the select committee, Labour MP Jim Sheridan, said he hoped her arrest would not affect her appearance before MPs. "The police will do whatever it is they feel necessary to do, and if they feel it's necessary to arrest Rebekah Brooks at this time, then so be it.

"I don't buy into the conspiracy theories that the police are doing something underhand. I think it's just that if they feel it necessary, then so be it. Their inquiry, it's far, far more important than any other inquiry."

Labour MP Chris Bryant, who believes his phone was hacked, also has concerns about the timing of the arrest.

Either way there's serious pressure being applied to Rupert Murdoch and his empire.