The final issue of the News of the World sold 3.8m copies, owners News International confirmed today – up 1.1m on the previous week.

Owner News International claimed retailers ‘were hit by unprecedented demand as people swept up copies of the newspaper’and that stores across the UK were sold out.

The 8,674th edition of the NoW featured a look back at some of its best scoops and since its launch on 1 October 1843, and included a 48-page souvenir pullout featuring some of its greatest splashes.