A major defence firm has revealed it is gearing up to manufacture up to 10,000 ventilators to help the UK deal with the coronavirus pandemic.

Babcock, which has a base at Brockworth on the Gloucester Business Park, revealed its plans as Gloucestershire-based Renishaw announced it has already begun mass-production of parts for thousands of the life-saving machines.

Other major household brands, including Dyson and tech giant Apple, have also responded to the world-wide need for ventilators, which helps patients breathe.

"We are proud to have been awarded a contract by the Cabinet Office to manufacture 10,000 Zephyr Plus ventilators, subject to regulatory approvals; a product being developed in collaboration with an established major international supplier of critical care ventilators," said Babcock in a statement.

The business, which has factories in Scotland and south-west England, did not reveal where it would be making the machines.

The firm also revealed that it was remaining operation as best as it could to help look after its customers and was not unaffected by the restrictions like any other business.

"The majority of our service delivery is critical to our customers' operations. All employees who can work from home are doing so.

"All of our major sites remain open, with key workers continuing to deliver critical support to our customers.

"Our defence businesses provide crucial support to the national defence of the countries we operate in and work on key programmes will continue during these challenging times.

"Our emergency services businesses are on the front line of the response to this crisis with all bases open.

"Our nuclear businesses continue to support the safe operation of nuclear power stations and decommissioned sites and in South Africa, we continue to provide the maintenance and engineering support that keeps the power stations running.

"Across many parts of Europe, as well as Australia and the UK, our aerial emergency medical services teams are playing a courageous role helping governments and health services fight the spread of COVID-19 and we are proud of the contribution our teams are making."