Cancer-destroying machinery weighing 42 tonnes has completed a 5,550-mile journey to an Oxford hospital.

In the largest delivery of its kind in the UK, six state-of-the-art radiotherapy machines, costing a total of £6m, arrived at the Churchill Hospital in Headington on Thursday - all the way from San Francisco, California.

The linear accelerators (Linacs), which use beams of radiation to target cancer, were unloaded in reinforced, vaulted rooms at the £109m cancer and haematology centre, being constructed at the site off Old Road.

It took one-and-a-half months to transport them by road and sea - including three weeks on a cargo ship - and it will take another five weeks for experts to assemble them.

They will then be tested using dummies known as "phantoms", before hospital staff can carry out their own three-month clinical checks to ensure they are ready for patients by April next year.

The Churchill Hospital's cancer and haematology centre covers a catchment area of 1.1m people.

At present about 4,000 patients a year receive radiotherapy treatment - and this number is likely to increase once the department opens.

Director of medical physics and clinical engineering Dr Chris Gibson said: "For a centre this size, five machines would be the absolute minimum - but with six we'll be able to guarantee uninterrupted treatment for patients.

"These machines can be used on tumours anywhere in the body and allow us to shape the radiation beam to exactly the right shape for the tumour being targeted.

"Two are attached with CT scanners, so we can get 3D images of more complex tumours."

The machines were supplied by VarianMedical Systems in a 30-year deal.

Under the terms of the deal they will be replaced by new equipment at the end of their 10- to 12-year life span.

The cancer and haematology centre will also include 217 beds, an intensive care unit and 10 operating theatres.

When it opens in June next year, it will bring all cancer services in Oxford under one roof for the first time.