A hospital in eastern England is having to use a cold storage trailer as a temporary morgue after a flu epidemic caused an unexpected surge in the number of deaths.

The trailer -- normally used for storing food -- provides thirty-six mortuary spaces.

The authorities hired it after the region's mortuaries became full during the Christmas period.

A spokesman for the hospital The Norfolk and Norwich said the situation had been excerberated by there having been few cremations and burials over the holiday season.