Whistleblower who secretly filmed body bags at a Chinese hospital overrun by the coronavirus crisis as been arrested, it is reported.

Footage posted online allegedly shows eight bodies in a bus outside a hospital in Wuhan, the epicentre of the outbreak which has now killed over 500.

More bodies were inside the hospital - where sick patients were in a corridor - waiting to be removed, it is claimed.

The man who recorded the footage, named locally as Fang Bin, claimed bodies were being stacked inside the bus.

His video shows doctors and nurses wearing full-body protective suits at Wuhan's Number Five hospital.

In the footage, he asks a man in a protective suit: "So, many people just died?"

"When did this happen? Yesterday? There are so many bodies."

Chinese journalist Jennifer Zeng, based in New York, shared the video on Twitter and also told of Fang's arrest.

She tweeted on Tuesday: "#Fangbin who shot that viral '8 bodies in 5 minutes' #CoronavirusOutbreak video, says he just did a simple thing of shooting whatever he saw in the hospital.

"The #CCP accused him of being paid by anti-China forces to do so, but he did get much support from fellow citizens!"