Health officials have told Cambridge University's 20,000 students not to worry after an outbreak of meningitis left three undergraduates in hospital.

One male and one female student from St Catharine's College and a male from Trinity College are being treated in the city's Addenbrooke's Hospital after contracting the potentially fatal disease over the last 10 days.

The trio are 'well on the road to recovery', the university said. People who they have been in close contact with have received antibiotics to reduce their risk of falling ill. An Aberdeen University student died of meningitis last month.

A spokeswoman for the Health Protection Agency, which has been helping the university, said: 'Every year there are one or two cases at universities when students go back. There's no need to panic. It's business as usual.'