Doctors at Utrecht’s main hospital UMC are preparing to receive the country’s first ebola patient, broadcaster Nos says on Friday.

The cabinet has allocated four beds at a special unit in the hospital for international aid workers who have become infected with ebola and need treatment.

The patient is a Nigerian man who is being brought to the Netherlands at the request of the World Health Organisation, the Dutch health ministry is quoted as saying.

He is said to be a soldier who was serving with the UN peace-keeping forces in Liberia. He will be brought to the Netherlands on a special flight but it is not yet known when he is due to arrive.