Australians in China's coronavirus region may not be able to be evacuated

Strict travel restrictions mean an unknown number of Australians may be stranded in the coronavirus hotspot

The Australian government does not know how many of its citizens are caught in the vast quarantine lock-down imposed across China, as it and governments around the world scramble to try to evacuate their nationals.

But it appears increasingly unlikely foreign countries will be allowed to simply extricate their citizens in the face of militarily enforced lockdowns. Indonesia has said it "seems to be impossible", while Australia has said it "needs to abide by the travel restrictions " placed there for precisely the purpose of containing the coronavirus".