Travellers wearing protective masks wait in front of Gare du Nord railway station in Paris on March 17, 2020.

Parisians thronged the city's rail stations and took to the highway early on Tuesday to escape the French capital before a lockdown imposed to slow the rate of coronavirus contagion kicked in at midday.

Advertising Read more

Those who stayed behind descended on supermarkets and pharmacies even as these were due to remain open under the sweeping restrictions on public life announced by President Emmanuel Macron late on Monday.

The Paris exodus drew dismay from provincial France, where many fear that city-dwellers will bring the virus with them and accelerate its spread.

One man, a pensioner who was loading his car near the UNESCO headquarters, said he was fleeing to his country house 100 km west of Paris.

"Better to be there than couped up in the apartment," he said, giving his name only as Jean-Yves.

Along with controls on France's land borders, Macron ordered people to stay at home from 1100 GMT on Tuesday and to leave only to buy groceries, travel to work if essential, exercise or for medical care. The army will help move the sick to hospitals, he said.

🔊Fuite hors de #Paris à gare Montparnasse. De nombreux jeunes se rendent dans leur famille pour y passer leur confinement. De très grosses valises, signe qu'on ne prévoit pas de revenir si tôt dans la capitale.. #COVID19france pic.twitter.com/nPAp5qYq2k — GauloiseRéfractaire💥 (@MAHIEUCATHERINE) March 17, 2020

France's death toll from the coronavirus has reached 148 and a total of 6,600 people have been confirmed infected.

As in other European countries including Italy, Germany and Spain, schools are closed, restaurants and bars shuttered up, and factories idle.

Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said he expected the French economy to shrink by 1% in 2020.

Airbus said it would temporarily stop production at its plants in France and Spain. Carmaker Renault announced it was shutting down industrial sites in France and Spain until further notice.

Panic buying

In central Paris, normally choked with traffic, children played out in the streets before the lockdown came into force.

It will last at least two weeks, Macron said.

In supermarkets across the city, people loaded up their trolleys, ignoring the government's plea not to panic-buy.

In one Monoprix supermarket in the 15th arrondissement, close to the Eiffel Tower, the shelves were empty of flour, pasta and long-life milk. At the tills, the store had marked out one-metre intervals in tape to remind customers to keep distance from one another and sought payment by card, not cash.

After Macron announced mandatory confinement and the closing of borders earlier today, the Parisians are fleeing the capital en masse. Montparnasse station looks totally safe right now... #coronapocolypse https://t.co/TdZh5KnKcs — Hélène Landemore (@landemore) March 16, 2020

At the Gare du Nord station, crowds of passengers, many wearing masks, waited to board their trains out of the city.

Armed police patrolled inside and a worker disinfected the main hallway.

Junior transport minister Jean-Baptiste Djebbari said the government had not wanted to prevent people travelling to the provinces. But he acknowledged the spread of the coronavirus might be exacerbated by people crowding onto trains.

In provincial France, some were incredulous at the influx of city folk.

"Parisians are fleeing the city and will infect the provinces, just to be confined in the open air. This exodus is unthinkable, selfish and a ticking time-bomb," one Twitter user wrote.

One traveller, at the Gare du Nord, 44-year-old Stephane Legrand, shrugged at the suggestion the exodus was going to help spread the contagion.

"The virus is global already. I'm normally in good health,

I'm never ill, so I hope all will be well."

(REUTERS)

Daily newsletterReceive essential international news every morning Subscribe