The Yorkshire Ripper is self-isolating in his high-security Durham prison after he was diagnosed with coronavirus, it's been reported.

Serial killer Peter Sutcliffe was in hospital for suspected heart problems, it was reported last week.

After five nights, he returned to HMP Frankland on Tuesday (November 3) and on Thursday he started to show Covid-19 symptoms, reports The Sun.

The 74-year-old is now being monitored in County Durham.

Last week it was reported the killer was being treated at the University Hospital of North Durham, which is near the maximum-security Frankland Prison.

He was allegedly handcuffed to a bed in a private room and was being treated in a cardiology ward away from other patients.

The Ripper, who is serving life for the murder of 13 women across Yorkshire and the North West between 1975 and 1980, has struggled to breathe in the last week and has slept badly, the report said.

Sutcliffe was jailed for life in 1981 and, after a long spell in Broadmoor Hospital in Berkshire, he was transferred to HMP Frankland in 2016 after being deemed stable enough to serve time in prison.

A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: “We don’t comment on individual prisoners.”