A highway service station in China has faced backlash after setting up separate toilets for residents from Hubei Province out of coronavirus fears.

Footage filmed by an anonymous passerby shows the two cubicles inside the public restroom being labelled as 'toilets for Hubei residents only'.

'Hubei has sacrificed a lot while battling the [virus] outbreak,' the unidentified resident told the press. 'It feels like discrimination towards people from Hubei.'

The local community claimed the dedicated stalls were 'preventative measures for unusual times'.

Footage filmed by an anonymous passerby last Saturday shows the two cubicles inside the public restroom in Yongfu service station being labelled as 'toilets for Hubei residents only'

The Hubei resident was travelling to southern China last Saturday when he spotted the toilets at the Yongfu service station in Guilin. He said there were also dedicated parking lots for Hubei people.

'I was furious,' the traveller said, 'Is this how other places treat people from Hubei?'

He called the dedicated cubicles 'just a front because there was no one in the restroom to check where you are from.'

The picture shows one of the dedicated toilet cubicles 'for Hubei residents only' in Guilin city

An officer is seen using a thermometer gun to take a driver's temperature at a checkpoint at a highway toll gate in Wuhan in central China's Hubei Province during the coronavirus outbreak

The measures were implied as 'precautions against the spread of the coronavirus', said a spokesperson from the local health commission.

'We don't have rights to check or stop any travellers [from using the toilets],' the officer told Pear Video, 'Every place has its own ways to address problems.'

Social media users have also criticised the local community for 'regional discrimination'.

'This is clearly prejudice. We need to prevent the virus, not Hubei people,' one comment read.

Another said: 'As a Hubei resident, this makes me feel so sad and insignificant.'

A vehicle is pictured being stopped at a highway coronavirus checkpoint in Guangzhou, China

The Chinese central province Hubei has been the epicentre of the outbreak since the virus was first discovered in January in its capital city, Wuhan. Medics are pictured in a Wuhan hospital

The Chinese central province Hubei has been the epicentre of the outbreak since the virus was first discovered in January in its capital city, Wuhan.

But as COVID-19 rapidly spread globally in a matter of weeks, Europe has now become the 'new epicentre', the World Health Organisation says.

Coronavirus cases and deaths are now higher outside of China than inside, figures show, as the global death toll soars past 6,600 today.

The World Health Organization has said Europe has now become the 'new epicentre' as the virus rapidly sweeps the world. Pictured: WHO's Chief Executive Dr Tedros Adhanom

Medics in hazmat suits care to a patient in Civile Hospital, Brescia, Italy. Italy is at the centre of the escalating coronavirus crisis, with more than 24,700 cases recorded

Recorded cases across 152 countries have now reached over 92,000 compared with China's 80,900 - an additional 11,100 or so more.

Italy is nearing 23,000 confirmed cases, making it the worst affected by the disease outside of China, followed by South Korea and Iran.

The UK, with 1,391 currently diagnosed and 35 dead, has been slow to follow suit. The Government ministers claim to be 'following the science'.