Anxious foreigners in the locked-down city that spawned China's deadly viral epidemic say they are stranded at home, running out of food and desperate to leave, as governments scrambled to draw up evacuation plans.
![Anxious foreigners await rescue from China virus epicentre](http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/afp.com/9c69c8d665be24eb952c2f58e70fecbe74666a85.jpg)
Authorities have barred travel to and from Hubei province and its capital Wuhan, where the coronavirus was first detected before it spread across
China and to a dozen other countries -- including the
United States,
France and Australia.
Several other large cities in China have introduced their own travel restrictions in a bid to contain the disease, which has killed 56 people and infected nearly 2,000 others.