A Chinese lothario was caught out after he was involved in an accident and his 17 girlfriends all arrived at the hospital.

The man, identified only by his surname Yuan, from Changsha, in Hunan province, was taken to hospital on 24 March after an accident.

Hospital staff were taken aback after 17 women appeared at Yuan’s bedside – although not for long.

"I've been with him for a year and a half. [After hearing he'd been in an accident] I cried so hard I didn't have any tears left,” one girlfriend, Xiao Li, told the South China Morning Post.

"I was really worried when I heard that he was in hospital. But when I started seeing more and more beautiful girls show up, I couldn't cry any more."

Some of the women had dated Yuan, now best known as China's Romeo, for up to nine years, with the playboy carefully concealing his seventeen different lives from each woman.

"We've already had a son together,” said another girlfriend Wang Fang. “What can I do now? I don't love him anymore, but I do love my son."

Meanwhile, yet another girlfriend claimed that she had thought Yuan was “Mr Right” and had already started to plan their wedding.