POLICE tonight warned that tablets missing from a hospital patient's handbag could be lethal.

The 54 small, bright pink, morphine tablets, which were in a blue blister packet, went missing from a patient's handbag at the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, yesterday.

Police said the patient had momentarily put down her handbag in the canteen between 1.30 and 2pm, but when she returned to it the tablets were missing.

A spokesman for Thames Valley Police said: "It is possible that they had fallen from the bag earlier in the afternoon, but they have not been found.

"If taken together the dose would be lethal. If found they should be returned to the hospital or your local police station."