Coronavirus: Eerie footage shows Wuhan as ghost town amid city's battle with deadly virus

Area is on lockdown as authorities try and contain infection

Videos have shown deserted streets haunting the city at the heart of the coronavirus outbreak, which has seen residents flee or avoid going outside over the deadly disease.

Wuhan — which usually has a population of around 11 million people — appears like a ghost town in drone footage, which sweeps past empty roads and walkways.

Shops and restaurants are also completely void of customers in an eerie video.

Wuhan was put on lockdown several weeks ago, with the city’s transport grinding to a halt and authorities barring people from leaving the city as fears over the deadly virus grew.

A video shared by Bloomberg shows entire stretches of streets without any movement, while other images show people wearing masks strolling through the deserted city.

Authorities in Wuhan have urged people to avoid crowds and have restricted public gatherings, while some locals have self-quarantined and decided to stay at home.

Train stations and airports have been shut down in the vicinity, while roads have also been blocked as authorities have tried to prevent the virus from spreading.

Other cities in the Hubei province in central China have also gone into a government-ordered lockdown, believed to affect at least 60 million people.

Many countries, including the UK, have evacuated their citizens from Wuhan, the epicentre of the outbreak which started in December.

The death toll from the new coronavirus — which gives patients flu-like symptoms but can develop into pneumonia — has now surpassed 1,000.

Most cases have been reported in China, although people have been infected throughout the globe, including in France, the US and Thailand.

There have been eight people diagnosed in the UK so far.

Britain said the virus was an “imminent threat to public health” after a UK national who caught the virus in Singapore in January appeared linked to several other confirmed cases in Europe.

The director-general of the World Health Organisation, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has said the epidemic was “very much an emergency” for China but also “one that holds a very grave threat for the rest of the world”.

Additional reporting by agencies