A weekly newspaper has today republished its entire edition with an extra ten pages of editorial after it emerged that murdered soldier Lee Rigby was from its patch.

The Middleton Guardian, part of the Trinity Mirror-owned MEN Media stable, normally hits the streets on Wednesdays.

But after Drummer Rigby was named yesterday and it emerged he was from the town, the paper decided to republish the edition with the extra pages.

The special edition, pictured below, was in the shops early this morning.

Editor Gerry Sammon said: “We were stunned to hear early on Thursday morning that Lee Rigby was from Middleton. We immediately decided to republish the week’s edition with an extra ten pages of editorial.

“We were inundated with tributes from across the community and we focused our coverage on how the local community has received and dealt with the news.

“The reporters and subs did an amazing job pulling together a huge amount of copy at such short notice.”

The Guardian team are now planning a further special tribute edition for next Wednesday.

Sister daily paper the Manchester Evening News has also published a special edition today with a nine page tribute.

Drummer Rigby was hacked to death outside his barracks in Woolwich, South East London, on Wednesday.  Two men are under armed guard in hospital on suspicion of the crime.