A man in China has been caught out when 17 of his girlfriends turned up to see him in hospital after a car accident, according to Chinese media reports.

The man, identified only by his surname Yuan, from the city of Changsha, in Hunan province, had apparently been dating all the women at the same time,and even has a child with one of them, according to the South China Morning Post , citing a report in the local Xiaoxiang Chen Bao newspaper.

Yuan managed to string the women along for months, or in some cases years, and one girlfriend told the paper that she had already started planning their wedding.

But the game was up when doctors contacted his loved ones after the accident.

"I was really worried when I heard that he was in hospital," Xiao Li, who said she has been seeing Mr Yuan for 18 months, was quoted as saying.

"But when I started seeing more and more beautiful girls show up, I couldn't cry anymore."

She said other women had giving Yuan financial support.

Yuan suffered non-life-threatening injuries in the March 24 crash.

The story has gone viral among Chinese social media users.

Some expressed admiration for him while others said the women should have been smarter and discovered his deceit.

It appears that Yuan's troubles have only just begun, though, as police officers have now launched an investigation into allegations of fraud.