News of plans to close Peugeot's Ryton plant forced the Coventry Evening Telegraph to hold the front page to get the very latest news onto the streets.

A tip-off leaked details of the devastating jobs blow to the paper's newsdesk at around 1.45pm on Tuesday, well after its 11.30am deadline.

The news came shortly before an offical announcement was made and saw the print run of the paper's final edition stopped, and the front page of the last 5,000 copies changed.

A 10-par story about the closure and the loss of 2,300 jobs at the Warwickshire factory was posted of the Evening Telegraph's website just after 2pm, with the City Final hitting the streets shortly afterwards.

As news of the bombshell spread, its website, icCoventry.co.uk, received record page views - recording 42,000 on Tuesday compared with the average 25,000 to 30,000 per day.

Yesterday's paper carried a further eight pages on the story, as reaction from workers and the business community poured in.

E-mails and message board postings from readers were also published in-paper, together with a nostalgia piece looking back at the history of the plant.

Multi-media editor Martin Smith said: "We had a call from a contact inside the plant, from a reliable source, who said an anouncement would be made in ten minutes, and we began drafting things up.

"We've had an awful lot of feedback, as expected.

"It is the final nail in the coffin for Coventry car making after Jaguar left last year. It is a terrible shame."