Climate change, the looming threat of nuclear war and Donald Trump’s provocative nature in his role as US President are believed to be reasons that the clock will edge closer to midnight.

The metaphorical clock, created by the The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, assesses the danger of apocalypse based on the threats such as nuclear Armageddon, bioterrorism, climate change and other catastrophes.

Scientists unveiled the Doomsday Clock in 1947 after the atomic bombs they had helped to create decimated Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of the Second World War.

Co-founder Eugene Rabinowitch said: “The Bulletin's clock is not a gauge to register the ups and downs of the international power struggle; it is intended to reflect basic changes in the level of continuous danger in which mankind lives in the nuclear age.”