London, December 25: Sikhs in the United Kingdom stepped forward to deliver hot meals to thousands of truck drivers stranded in southern England by the border with France that was closed over the fear of the spread of a new strain of coronavirus strain that has been reported to be more transmissible and the cause for the rapid surge in Covid-19 cases.

Local British media reported that on Tuesday a Sikh charity whose members cooked hot meals for long hours delivered close to a thousand meals of chickpea rice and mushroom pasta to a makeshift trucker driver camp organised in Kent. COVID-19 Variant: Second 'More Transmissible Strain' of Coronavirus Linked to South Africa Detected in UK, Says Matt Hancock.

Khalsa Aid Distributes 1,000 Domino Pizzas to Stranded Drivers Watch Video:

Apart from the home-cooked meals, they also returned to Kent with pizzas donated by local restaurants for the stranded truck drivers, most of whom are eager to get back to their families for Christmas.

"1000 pizzas kindly donated by the @dominos Dhillon Group franchise (Kent) for the truck drivers stranded in #OperationStack! We are blessed with amazing donors and supporters. #Borders Closed," the charity organisation Khasla Aid tweeted.

"We've got another 400 meals coming, kindly donated by another business," it added. Members of Langar Aid, an international charity also joined the Sikh community in Kent as well as the local police and coastguard, to distribute the meals.

A volunteer of the charity delivering the meals said: "Some were distressed - they want to know when the borders will open and they can go home"

This comes as much of Europe this week banned travellers from the UK following the discovery of a new variant of coronavirus that is spreading through London and the southeastern county of Kent.

On Sunday, France had closed its border with the UK and things stand, thousands of trucks massed up at the border. Sputnik reported that London and Paris agreed late on Tuesday to reopen the border to certain groups of travellers, including cargo drivers, if they presented a negative Covid-19 test, however it is not clear how the drivers are supposed to get tested.

Meanwhile, several UK supermarkets have advised customers to shop as normal, although two large chains have warned about possible shortages of certain products if the UK-EU cargo flow is not restored in near future.

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