The UK's biggest in-person carol services have been cancelled due to coronavirus.

Holy Trinity Brompton Church (HTB) and Hillsong Church London have both announced they will move their carol services online due to the spread of the Omicron variant.

In a statement on Facebook, Hillsong said a number of people of their cast and crew have tested positive for Covid.

“Unfortunately, the recent rise of Covid-19 has significantly impacted our cast and crew and we had to make a difficult decision to postpone London Carols to next year,” the statement said.

“The steps we are taking are to help keep our staff, volunteers, you and your families safe. We want to ensure the health and safety of everyone involved is our main priority so people can enjoy Christmas together with friends and family.”

HTB has followed suit and announced that the carol service event and all in-person services will be paused until 2nd January.

The statement reads: “To protect our community from rising Covid-19 rates we’re pausing all our HTB in-person services for the next two weeks.

“There will be no in-person or online services on Friday the 24th of December or Sunday the 26th of December, but you can catch up on past Sundays and Carol Services on our YouTube channel.

“We plan to resume in-person services with ticketing, social distancing, and face coverings from the 2nd of January, but we’ll keep you updated.”

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has declared a major incident in London after a “huge surge” of covid cases in the capital.

He said: “We are already feeling the impact across the capital and while we are still learning about this variant, it’s right that London’s key agencies work closely together to minimise the impact on our city, including helping to protect the vital vaccination programme.”