Washington, May 3 (IANS) An astounding 3,440 tweets per second were posted on an average over Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden's killing in Pakistan, setting a new Twitter record.

 
 Osama bin Laden was killed by US commandos in a raid carried out at a mansion where he was hiding in Pakistan's Abbottabad city.
 
 There was very heavy online chatter Sunday night and during President Barack Obama's address to announce Osama's killing.  Twitter users posted messages at an average rate of 3,440 tweets per second, CNN reported.
 
 "Last night saw the highest sustained rate of tweets ever. From 10:45 p.m. - 2:20 a.m. ET (Eastern Time), there was an average of 3,000 tweets per second," the company's official public relations news feed wrote, before updating the figure to 3,440.
 
 It did not say which other events the Sunday's development had beaten to set the new record.
 
 At its peak, Twitter users posted 5,106 tweets per second.
 
 Many learnt about Osama's death through the social media.
 
 "I heard about it via twitter while in the middle of doing my podcast about video games -- needless to say it derailed the PSN (PlayStation Network) talk," wrote a Twitter user.
 
 Yet another wrote: "Heard it on Twitter, where else ;)."