The Mayor of a South Korean city at the centre of a new coronavirus outbreak has told residents to stay indoors as a surge in confirmed cases raised the prospect of wider transmission.
Malls, restaurants and streets in Daegu, the country's fourth largest city with a population of 2.5 million, were largely empty in scenes that local social media users likened to a disaster movie.
"We are in an unprecedented crisis," Daegu Mayor Kwon Young-jin said at a briefing, as he warned of likely further cases.
One person has died and 104 people are infected in South Korea - the majority of which are in Daegu.
The outbreak has been traced to an infected person who attended a local church, a scenario that KCDC described as a "super-spreading event".
Kwon cautioned that at least 90 more of the around 1000 other people who attended services at the controversial Temple of the Tabernacle of the Testimony, often labelled a cult, were also showing symptoms.
"We plan to test all believers of that church and have asked them to stay at home isolated from their families," Kwon said.
South Korea's Vice Health Minister Kim Kang-lip said at a separate briefing in the administrative city of Sejong that the situation was "very grave."
The cases previously reported in South Korea had mostly involved people who had travelled individually to China or come in contact with somebody who had.
Daegu authorities ordered the shutdown of all kindergartens, while schools considered postponing the beginning of the spring semester scheduled for early March.
The Defence Ministry banned troops stationed in Daegu from leaving their barracks and receiving guests. The US military imposed similar restrictions on its army base in the city, which houses thousands of troops, family members and civilian employees.