Congress leader Manish Tiwari, a former Information and Broadcasting Minister, posted a picture of cover and a page from American author Dean Koontz's book 'The Eyes of Darkness' and tweeted: "Is coranavirus a biological weapon developed by the Chinese called Wuhan-400? This book was published in 1981. Do read the excerpt."

Tiwari highlighted a paragraph that read: "They call the stuff 'Wuhan-400' because it was developed at their RDNA labs outside of the city of Wuhan, and it was the four hundredth viable strain of man-made micro-organisms created at that centre."

The virus has spread to around 30 countries, with China accounting for around 99 per cent of the total cases reported.