Three Birmingham City University workers evacuated from Wuhan on UK rescue flight

They are among 83 British nationals who will be taken to Arrow Park Hospital, Wirral, for a period of quarantine after the flight from China touches down at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire

Three Birmingham City University staff are on board the UK evacuation flight from the Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicentre of the coronavirus.

The BCU employees, consisting of Yvonne Griffiths, Maeve Clark and one other unnamed worker, are on board the Spanish-owned Wamos Air jet, which is scheduled to touch down at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire at lunchtime on Friday.

They are among 83 British nationals who will then be taken to Arrow Park Hospital, Wirral, for a period of quarantine. The aircraft will then depart for Spain where 27 other passengers on board the jet will disembark.

The BBC reports that the BCU trio were taken to Wuhan airport by colleagues in China that had been supporting them.

Some Britons have said they have been left behind in Wuhan after not being given enough time to make the evacuation flight back to the UK because the city is in "virtual lockdown" with little public transport.

It is understood that the FCO sent consular cars and issued special travel permits to get people through road blocks in the locked down city.

British father Adam Bridgeman told the BBC's Today programme that the car had arrived to late to get him, his wife and one-month-old son to the airport on time.

He said his Chinese wife had even tried calling the police to see if they could help get them there on time.

Some Britons had declined to join the repatriation flight after being told any Chinese nationals in their family would be unable to join.

Families had been told that relatives with Chinese passports would be unable to join them after Chinese officials denied them permission to leave the country.

That decision was reversed hours before the plane was due to depart, but some people said they did not have time to get to the airport.