The Daily Star has removed an article published on its website on Wednesday, which claimed a videogame, "Grand Theft Auto: Rothbury" is to be made out of the Raoul Moat tragedy.

The article claimed that unnamed "gaming websites" had put up a boxshot of the planned game.

It emerged that while there is no such game in the making, the article's author, Jerry Lawton, believed a crude mock-up boxshot of the game to be true and reported it.

He also quoted the grandmother of Samantha Stobbart - the ex-partner of Moat who was shot and badly injured by him - as saying, "It is sick - it's blood money". Later, it also emerged that he did not contact her.

The paper removed the article after several gaming news websites, including Escapist Magazine and Future's Computer and Video Games, raised concerns about it.

The Star told Journalism.co.uk that it was investigating the issue.