A 94-year-old Glasgow woman who had not eaten in five days after being too scared to leave her home during lockdown has been rescued by a charity.

The woman, who has not been named, was living in the top floor of a tenement block in Govan, and reportedly had no-one to shop for her while the coronavirus restrictions were in place.

Her plight was recognised after volunteers from the Salvation Army knocked on her door as part of their local food support scheme, which checks up on people who may be struggling during lockdown.

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She had gone five days without food due to being too scared to go outside.

“She had no one to get anything for her and she was too frightened to go out," Tracy Bearcroft, a major in the Govan Salvation Army, told the Guardian.

“She had no one to get anything for her and she was too frightened to go out.

"At first it was very scary for a lot of old folk, who didn’t want to go out because they thought they would catch it immediately and have to go to hospital.”

After her door was knocked on by volunteers, the woman's struggle was made evident.

She was given hot soup and a food parcel by the charity as part of the support project.

The Herald highlighted the story to First Minister Nicola Sturgeon during her daily coronavirus briefing, as it falls within her own constituency of Govan.

Ms Sturgeon said she has had concerns from the beginning about vulnerable people 'falling through the net'.

She told The Herald: "From the outset of this I have had concerns, as every right-minded person would have had, about vulnerable people possibly falling through the net.

"There has been a very significant package and infrastructure of support put in place both for those who are in the shielding groups but also we established a helpline for those who are vulnerable but not in the shielding group so that anyone who didn’t have family and friends to supply food and wasn’t able to go out had somewhere to go so they could access all of that.

"All of that support is still in place, and I would say to anyone out there who is in that position, or knows somebody who might be in that position, make sure you are aware of that support."

The project, set up by Mrs Bearcroft and her husband, has seen a massive rise, with demand increasing ten-fold in the last few weeks.

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Mrs Bearcroft added: "People don't really want to come [for charity food] but they don't really have an option because they have got kids and they don't have enough food to see them out for the week."

Across the UK, the Salvation Army have said they have saw a 63% increase in households receiving food parcels from its 665 UK centres between February and April.

They say the coronavirus crisis has pushed the country to a 'poverty tipping point'.