A police officer has been shot dead inside a custody centre in south London.

The Metropolitan Police say a 23-year-old man was detained at the scene at Croydon custody centre, and was taken to hospital with a gunshot wound.

The male officer was shot at 2.15am on Friday by a man who had already been arrested.

In a statement, the Met said the officer was treated at the scene and then taken to hospital by London Ambulance Service, but later died.

No police firearms were discharged, according to the police.

Commissioner Cressida Dick said: “This is a truly shocking incident in which one of our colleagues has lost his life in the most tragic circumstances. My heart goes out to his family, direct colleagues and friends.”

Mark White, Sky’s Home Affairs Correspondent,...

Harry and Meghan’s tour to southern Africa last year cost the taxpayer nearly £246,000, new accounts show.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex took their then four-month-old baby son Archie Mountbatten-Windsor to South Africa in September last year on his first royal overseas trip, with the duke also travelling solo to Angola, Malawi and Botswana.

The flights came to nearly a quarter of a million pounds and were the most expensive royal journey of 2019-2020, according to the royal financial records.

The trip became controversial after Meghan launched legal action against a newspaper and Harry delivered a scathing attack on the tabloid press while the tour was still under way.

Harry and Meghan also filmed an ITV documentary while on the trip in which they spoke of their struggles as royals.

A ...

Novavax is ready to start its Phase 3 trial of an experimental COVID-19 vaccine in the UK.

The US biotechnology firm plans to enrol up to 10,000 volunteers aged between 18 and 84 over the next four to six weeks.

The company joins AstraZeneca, Pfizer, and Moderna as its vaccine candidate enters the final step of the regulatory approvals process.

There are almost 40 potential vaccines being tested globally and more than 140 others in the early stages of testing, according to the World Health Organisation.

Half of the volunteers in the Novavax trial will have two shots of NVX-CoV2373 with Matrix-M, the company’s adjuvant which is intended to strengthen the vaccine. Half will be given a placebo.

Up to 400 volunteers will...

The first night of a 10pm curfew on pubs and restaurants has passed largely without incident in England – but some venues are warning that the absence of late-night drinkers could put their future into jeopardy.

In London, there was a small police presence on the streets of Soho last night, but no problems were reported.

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick joined a patrol in Shoreditch, a fashionable area in the capital’s east, to remind the public of the measures they need to follow to stop coronavirus from spreading.

Scotland Yard is planning to step up its enforcement of COVID regulations in the coming days and weeks as infection rates in London continue to rise.

The big test for premises and t...

The travel costs for Harry and Meghan’s high-profile tour of southern Africa came to £246,000 – and flights for a two-day visit to Oman taken by Prince of Wales cost £210,345.

The standout figures from the royal finances for 2019-20 come as officials warn that the royal accounts are set to take a £35m hit as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

Prince Charles had flown to Oman to pay his condolences following the death of Sultan Qaboos bin Said – and private charter flights needed to be used because the visit was at very short notice.

Both trips were on behalf of the UK government and the Foreign Office.

Other trips that stand out include Prince Andrew taking a private plane to Nor...

Michael Kiwanuka has won this year’s Mercury Prize with his self-titled third album.

The north London singer-songwriter had been nominated twice previously, but has now been successful on his third attempt to score the prize.

Kiwanuka, 33, beat off competition from Stormzy, Dua Lipa, Charli XCX, Kano and Laura Marling.

He told the BBC: “This year, I thought if there’s any chance, it would be this one. I was resigned to the fact if I didn’t win this year, I would never win. But I never thought I actually would.”

Asked how he would celebrate, the singer said his plans were fairly low-key.

“I will probably just have some pints… socially distanced, of course,” he said...

An NHS coronavirus contact-tracing app has launched across England and Wales.

As of Thursday evening, it had been downloaded more than one million times by Android users, according to the Google Play Store.

The total figure is likely to be higher when iPhone downloads are included, but Apple does not provide similar figures for app downloads.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock has called the new mobile phone app an “important step forward” in the UK’s fight against COVID-19.

It asks users to self-isolate for 14 days if it detects they were in close proximity to someone with coronavirus.

Is it private?

Yes...

Morrisons has become the first supermarket chain to reinstate rationing on essential goods after evidence that some customers were stockpiling.

Britain’s fourth-biggest grocer said it was limiting consumers buying products such as toilet roll, disinfectants and bleach to a maximum of three items.

Live updates on coronavirus from UK and around the world

It comes as the government introduces new measures in an effort to hold back the rising number of coronavirus cases.

Earlier this week, the chief executive of Tesco urged consumers to avoid a “return to unnecessary panic buying”, in an interview with Sky News.

All the major supermarkets had introduced temporary restrictions in March after shelves...

European Union health officials are urging member nations to move quickly to slow the latest wave of COVID-19 infections to avoid a repeat of the broad lockdowns that paralysed the continent’s economy in the spring.

EU health commissioner Stella Kyriakides said the most recent risk assessment showed that some countries are reporting more cases now than they did during the earlier pandemic’s peak.

She said now “might be our last chance to prevent a repeat of last spring”.

More than three million cases have been reported in Europe since the beginning of the year, including 187,509 deaths, according to figures from the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control.

These maps and graphs show how the picture is changing across Europe.

This map shows that Mon...

The UK has reported 6,634 new coronavirus cases – the highest daily total ever recorded.

A further 40 people are reported to have died within 28 days of testing positive for COVID-19, official figures show. The last time the daily death toll was higher than 40 was on 14 July, when 44 deaths were recorded.

All of the deaths happened in England, apart from two in Scotland and one in Wales.

England recorded the vast majority of Thursday’s coronavirus cases – 5,632 – followed by Scotland with 465 infections, Wales with 348 and Northern Ireland with 189.

The numbers take the seven-day rolling average for cases to 4,964 – up from 3,354 last Thursday.

Live updates on coronavirus from UK and around the world

Despite the record amount of cases, the UK is still nowhere...