An epidemic threatening trees in Sussex is spreading fast.

A further six trees have been confirmed as having sudden oak death, which is mutating and becoming more aggressive, according to officials from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Forestry Commission.

There have been 30 cases of sudden oak death in Sussex - the highest number in any area of Britain.

The fungus-like pathogen has already wiped out thousands of oak and other species in California and Oregon in the United States and in Canada, sparking fears the English oak may suffer the same fate.

British trees had been thought to be immune to the disease, which is found mainly in plants, until it was discovered in a southern red oak in woodland near Crawley in November.

Officials said the six latest trees to catch the disease, three holm oaks, a turkey oak, a beech and a sweet chestnut, were in Cornwall.

Infected trees appear to bleed to death as sap spills from them, turning red and running down the trunk. They can die in months.