Air pollution in UK cities is falling as the country goes into lockdown – mirroring what has happened in other parts of the world, experts said.

Satellite images have already revealed dramatic reductions in concentrations of pollutant nitrogen dioxide in China and northern Italy, coinciding with lockdowns to tackle the coronavirus pandemic.

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And as daily life grinds to a halt in the UK, with a sharp reduction in traffic that causes much of the air pollution in cities, air quality has started to improve here.

Professor Alastair Lewis, from the National Centre for Atmospheric Science, University of York, said: “This is primarily a consequence of lower traffic volumes, and some of the most clear reductions have been in nitrogen dioxide, which comes primarily from vehicle exhaust.”