Essential groceries and personal care products are fast disappearing from supermarkets..

Panic buying extended into today despite the government issuing a statement saying there is no shortage of essential goods. Rice and toilet rolls are being snapped up within minutes in some supermarkets, RTHK reports.

A Wellcome shop assistant said there people lined up before one Wan Chai store opened at 8:00 am today, and all of the white rice and toilet paper – which were fully restocked overnight – were gone in just 30 minutes.

Another chain, ParknShop, said they were restricting customers to buying only two bags of rice at a time due to the rush.

One elderly man at a crowded shop said "it’s like famine now, even all the rice is gone!”

But an elderly woman found comfort in the fact that there will be people in society who will come forward to help. “Why fret when we have Li Ka-shing!” she said.

Not all were content to wait for help to come, however, and they grabbed brown rice that was left in the shops after the white rice was sold out. Some said they had indeed ran out of rice at home.

But one customer, surnamed Chan, said she believed a metropolitan city like Hong Kong would not face shortages and run out of basic things.

"Even in mainland China they allow people to go out every two days to get daily stuff even in such [contaminated] cities," she said.-Photo: RTHK