A police sergeant was overwhelmed with cleaning supplies following a plea for donations on Facebook.

Sergeant Mike Lawro wrote that Eccles Police Station, specifically the Roads Policing Unit which covers Bolton, Bury, Salford, Trafford and Wigan, struggled to get hold of the cleaning products and protective gloves they needed to prevent the spread of coronavirus, as they had not been issued with sufficient supplies.

In his post he said: "If you can spare a bottle of hand sanitiser, a packet of anti-septic wipes, or literally anything you may have spare. I will happily reimburse anyone.

"It will keep us healthy as long as possible so we can stay on the front line and in the fight."

Six hours later more than a hundred items had been delivered to the police station. He revealed that offers of help came from all over the UK and even as far afield as America.

In a Facebook post he shared later that day he wrote: "All of our operational cars are now stocked up with wipes and alcohol gel, so are our offices which will keep us going for a little while longer. The plan will be to use them to stay healthy as long as we can.

"The feedback from the public has been beyond belief, it has never been my intention to put people in a bad light on the back of this, I know everyone is working hard behind the scenes.

"Thank you to all for your offers of help and support offered. Any surplus supplies we will donate to those in need."