Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the British-Iranian woman detained in Iran, has contracted suspected novel coronavirus, her husband has said.

“The prison is avoiding confirming whether Nazanin has coronavirus – but I would be surprised if she doesn’t. There are enough symptoms, and the authorities are just too reluctant to see,” Richard Ratcliffe said.

He is then alleged to have poured kerosene over the girl, 17, before setting her alight.

Neighbours in Telangana’s Suryapet district in India noticed the blaze and helped to put it out before calling for an ambulance.Police said the girl was home alone at the time of the incident.

A senior Turkish official said on Thursday that the government had decided to immediately allow Syrian refugees to reach Europe “by land or sea” and that border guards had been stood down. “All refugees, including Syrians, are now welcome to cross into the European Union,” the official told Reuters.

However, the first 300 refugees to arrive at the border were met with tear gas and some were left in no man’s land when the Turkish authorities refused to let them return.

This morning, health minister Edward Argar refused to comment on reports that the first person to contract coronavirus in the UK also passed it on to their doctor.

He said: ‘It is a new development but the chief medical officer has also said we are still doing the contact tracing around that and we are still looking into the details of that case, so it is probably a bit premature to say more than that at the moment.’

“Like many Afghans, I have mixed feelings. The general secrecy around the deal, the lack of presence of non-Taliban Afghans in the process, the fact that the US-Taliban talks seemed to marginalise other Afghan voices, all have made me anxious,” said Shaharzad Akbar, the chair of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission

“However, on the other hand, if the agreement allows for a reasonable timeline for a responsible withdrawal and ensures intra-Afghan talks, there is room for hope about a substantive reduction in conflict and violence. Peace will require much more.”