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Mass graves could be introduced if local death services become inundated with bodies during the coronavirus outbreak, Yorkshire experts have warned.

Death and bereavement services will "highly likely" be overwhelmed even if just 1% of people who contract Covid-19 die, say academics from the University of Huddersfield.

A major increase in mortality rates, coupled with staff absences, would lead to struggles issuing death certificates, a bottleneck in funeral services and overfilled mortuaries, they warn.

Limited cemetery space could also be a major problem, with mass graves a possibility.

Mass graves could be introduced if local death services become inundated with bodies during the coronavirus outbreak, Yorkshire experts have warned.

However, the researchers acknowledge this would be "highly controversial and would upset and anger many communities".

It comes as work started on a temporary mortuary at Birmingham Airport, with space for up to 12,000 bodies in a worst-case scenario amid the Covid-19 outbreak.

The airport is next to Birmingham's National Exhibition Centre (NEC), which has already been mooted as a possible location for a temporary field hospital.

Dr Julia Meaton, Dr Anna Williams and researcher Helen-Marie Kruger, authors of the paper, examined the capacity of a northern English local authority to manage excess deaths resulting from a pandemic.

The research was undertaken in 2019 but updated to reflect potential scenarios in the current outbreak.

The authority, which has a population of nearly half a million, conducts approximately 3,000 cremations and 500 burials per year.

Under normal conditions the local authority's processing capacity is 120 bodies per week and it can process up to 60 death certificates a day.

Yorkshire academics say 'mass graves possible' if Covid-19 deaths overwhelm local services