LONDON - London's public transport will begin operating a reduced service over the next few days because of the spread of coronavirus, the city's mayor Sadiq Khan said on Tuesday.

"Today is a regular service in Transport for London. Over the course of the next few weekdays we will reduce that to probably a Saturday and a Sunday service, and then we will reduce it again depending on what the demand is," Khan told Sky News.

"What I don’t want to do is turn public transport off which means nurses, doctors, essential workers can't reach their place of work."

(Reporting by Andrew MacAskill and Kylie MacLellan, Editing by Guy Faulconbridge) ((Andrew.MacAskill@thomsonreuters.com; +447818584430; Reuters Messaging: andrew.macaskill@thomsonreuters.com))