Coronavirus: Evacuation flight carrying Britons from quarantined cruise ship takes off from Japan

More than 620 people were infected with disease on board Diamond Princess

A repatriation flight carrying 32 British and European passengers evacuated from the Diamond Princess cruise ship has taken off from Japan.

The Foreign Office said the evacuation flight had British and government and medical staff on board, and was expected to arrive in the UK on Saturday morning.

The passengers spent more than two weeks trapped on the coronavirus-stricken ship off the coast of Japan.

The evacuation plane is due to land at Boscombe Down military base, near Salisbury in Wiltshire. The passengers will then be taken to Arrowe Park Hospital in Wirral for 14 days of quarantine.

Two passengers in their eighties died aboard Diamond Princess after contracting coronavirus, while Israel confirmed its first case of the disease after the return of one person who had been on the ship.

More than 620 passengers on board the vessel were infected coronavirus - more than any country other than China.

Some British passengers had already been evacuated over the last week on flights to Hong Kong, while others were being treated for the virus in health facilities in Japan.

At least four UK nationals contracted the virus on board, but those due to arrive home on Saturday had tested negative.