Hundreds of carcasses from an online wildlife market in China have been seized as officials clamp down on the trade in the struggle to contain the coronavirus.

Distressing images show the owner of the market among frozen wild animals including raccoons, squirrels and eagles after her freezers were raided on Friday.

China has imposed a ban on selling the potentially disease-carrying meat after it emerged the deadly virus was probably passed onto humans by wildlife sold as food, especially bats and snakes.

The virus has so far killed 362 people and infected nearly 17,500 globally.

Officials found hundreds of frozen wild animal carcasses during a raid in the city of Baise

The female owner (pictured) had been selling carcasses online via WeChat message service

The suspect racoons, squirrels, leopard cats and eagles as well as horse, dog and sparrow

Forestry officials said they arrested the owner of the market in the county of Pingguo in Baise, a city in China's southern Guangxi region after a raid on her refrigeration facility on Friday.

The woman, whose surname is Huang, ran her business mainly through WeChat - the country's most popular messaging service.

Officials found the carcasses of 250 birds, three eagles, two leopard cats, 48 racoons, 30 squirrels and three pheasants in freezers in a rental unit.

In online adverts, Huang allegedly also offered horse, dog and sparrow meat, as well as the testicles of pigs and goats.

Officials found the carcasses of 250 birds, three eagles, two leopard cats, 48 racoons, 30 squirrels and three pheasants in freezers in a rental unit

Officials said the owner (pictured left) had hundreds of carcasses in her freezers

Forestry police officer Tan Chunmao said: 'The female vendor Huang sold frozen wildlife through WeChat for an extended period of time.

'She also created a WeChat chat group, access to which was granted to loyal customers.'

According to the police, Huang admitted to purchasing the carcasses of exotic game, freezing them, and then selling them online.

She remains in custody as further investigations continue.

The temporary ban on trading wild animals was imposed over a week ago as it is believed to have been spawned in a food market that sold wild animals in the city of Wuhan.

But market vendors around China are still secretly selling them.

Investigations have exposed stalls in Hubei Province, the ground zero of the epidemic, as well as Guangdong Province continuing to trade wild rodents, snakes, pheasants, deer, badgers and weasels.

On Friday, one undercover investigation found that a market in Guangdong was still selling the forbidden creatures by hiding them in tents.

According to the report by Chinese news outlet Southern Metropolis Daily, one seller in Baiyun District in Guangzhou was eager to offer wild snakes and bamboo rats to the journalist, who posed as a customer.

The man charged 300 yuan (£33) per kilogram for the snakes and 160 yuan (£18) per kilogram for the rats, hidden camera footage shows.

Two vendors aged 56 and 26 from the market were arrested by police an hour after the article was published, wrote Southern Metropolis Daily in a follow-up report. Its original report has been censored on the internet.