Emptying Trash incredibally slow

[ Moved to the Fixing WordPress sub-forum. ]

I am using Woocommerce with WordPress and having to delete test products posted.
After moving products to Trash, I then select Trash and click Empty Trash.

The actual emptying of Trash takes an inordinate amount of time. Even just 10 products take around 5 minutes. Last night I had to delete 280 and that just went on and on.

a) I am assuming this is a Wordperss related question and not Woocommerce related, please correct me if I am wrong

b) Any ideas ??

thanks