A newspaper in Australia printed eight extra pages on Thursday (Representative Image)

People in Australia have been stockpiling everyday essentials like toilet paper in response to the coronavirus crisis. Australians have been panic-buying so much toilet paper, in fact, that some supermarket shelves have been left bare. To tackle the toilet paper shortage amidst coronavirus fears, a newspaper came up with a novel solution. On Thursday, NT News printed eight extra pages for people to use as toilet paper – and their unconventional idea has left many in splits.

According to The Guardian, NT News is a Darwin-based newspaper famous for its humorous front pages. On Thursday, the newspaper printed a special eight-page insert with watermarks and a cut-out guide that people could use as toilet paper.

NT News also shared a video of the special edition newspaper on Twitter:

YES, WE ACTUALLY DID PRINT IT #toiletpapercrisispic.twitter.com/jusP50ojYu — The NT News (@TheNTNews) March 4, 2020

The video has garnered more than 2.8 lakh views and over 5,000 'likes', along with a ton of amused responses.

"Hahaha I love this paper!" wrote one person in the comments section. "This is genius," said another.

The newspaper's editor, Matt Williams, told The Guardian that it was selling well. "We are a newspaper known around the world who understands the needs of our readers," he said. "Territorians … are in great need of toilet paper right now so we had to deliver what they needed."

The bulk buying of toilet paper in Australia led to the viral hashtags #ToiletPaperEmergency and #ToiletPaperApocalypse and inspired a ton of memes.

#ToiletPaperEmergency

When you actually need toilet paper, but the masses are stupid. pic.twitter.com/Is6LzHsy8j — Dan Packer (@Dcpacker) March 5, 2020

For Australians (and the rest of the world who may wonder what's going on here). #ToiletPaperEmergencypic.twitter.com/mJVuNOCJrh — Mark Morey (@markmorey5) March 6, 2020

Australia's major grocers put strict limits on purchases of toilet paper on Wednesday after a rush of panic buying related to coronavirus fears emptied shelves, as the country recorded its third case of local transmission of the disease. Australia has reported 42 cases of the coronavirus - the bulk of whom were evacuees from a cruise ship docked in Japan - and just three cases where people who have not left the country have been infected.

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