News of pop singer Beyonce's pregnancy set a new Guinness World Records record for most Tweets per second at the weekend.

The star announced that she was expecting her first child with rapper husband Jay-Z before a live performance at the MTV VMA Awards on Sunday.

The 29-year-old rubbed her five-month baby bump, before declaring: "I want you to feel the love that's growing inside me."

Beyonce portrait.jpg

According to Twitter's official global PR feed, @TwitterComms, the news created a bump in traffic that saw 8,868 Tweets being sent per second.

The previous top five spikes in Twitter posts are as follows:

• 7,196 tweets were sent per second during the Women's World Cup final between Japan and the United States in July.

• 7,166 tweets per second were sent when Brazil lost to Paraguay in the Copa America.

• 6,939 tweets per second when Tokyo rang in the New Year.

• 5,530 tweets per second were sent after the March 11th earthquake that rocked Japan.

• More than 5,000 tweets per second were sent after Osama Bin Laden's death.

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