Travel chaos as Italy puts quarter of population under coronavirus quarantine

Panicked travelers rushed to flee northern Italy before more than a quarter of its population was placed under lockdown Sunday to combat coronavirus outbreak.

Chaos ensued as people tried to escape before the quarantine decree signed by Italian Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte went into effect in the Lombardy and Veneto regions, which are home to more than 16 million people.

Former Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini shared a video from the Garibaldi station of crowds of people rushing to catch the final trains out of the region, according to Metro UK.

“Masses of people in the late Saturday evening storm the last trains leaving Lombardy after the draft coronavirus decree filtered by the Government,” he tweeted.

Students at the University of Padua who had been out at bars Saturday night were alerted to the news on their phones and rushed back to head to the train stations.

The quarantine even angered inmates at a prison in Modena, where a riot erupted over their loved ones not being able to visit, local outlets reported.

The extraordinary lockdown measures, which will impact cities including Milan and Venice, will last until April 3.

The death toll from the virus in the country had climbed to at least 366 people Sunday, with at least 7,000 cases.

With Post wires