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Tourists have been snapped with signs reading "not from China" as they claim people fearful of the coronavirus outbreak are shunning east Asian holidaymakers.

The Taiwanese tourists said they began wearing the signs claiming people in Croatia had 'run away' from them.

The images were taken in the streets of Sibenik, a popular tourist destination in the Dalmatia region on Croatia's Adriatic coast.

Reports say some local media outlets had issued warnings that a bus-load of Chinese tourists from Wuhan, the city where the coronavirus outbreak originated, had arrived in Croatia.

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(Image: CEN)

The tourists, who feared locals might avoid them amid the coronavirus panic, were seen wearing "not from China" signs as they walked around the town.

The photos of the smiling tourists were posted to the Facebook page 'Dnevna Doza Prosjecnog Dalmatinca' (Daily Dose of the Average Dalmatian).

One man who claimed to be one of the tourists in the snaps then came forward, explaining he was from the island of Taiwan, a state that China views as a breakaway province.

Yu Ju Liu wrote: "I am the guy in this picture. I am from Taiwan. I love Europe."

He posted the picture on his Facebook account with the caption "People are afraid of Chinese because they think Chinese has Wuhan coronavirus nowaday.

"People see me and they run away in Croatia. They think I am from China. So I wrote "Not from China" on the paper, and people see me and they laughed."

China is in the midst of a massive clamp-downs on travel around and out of the country, as health authorities there work to contain the virus.

The outbreak has so far killed at least 106 people as it begins to spread across the globe.

The flu-like illness has infected more than 4,5000 in China, mostly in Wuhan and the surrounding Hubei Province.

Infections have since been seen as far afield as Japan and one case has been confirmed in Germany, as health authorities work to stop coronavirus spreading further.