Hundreds of African residents and businessmen in China’s southern city of Guangzhou have been evicted from hotels and apartments as local health officials rollout a testing campaign for Covid-19.

Those evicted say they are being discriminated against.

“They are accusing us of having the virus,” said Tobenna Victor, a Nigerian student in Guangzhou.

“We paid rent to them and after collecting rent they chased us out of the house. Since last night we have been sleeping outside.”

Businessman Lunde Okulunge Isidore, from the Democratic Republic of Congo, said: “They came to my house. They told me to wait after 24 hours for the result, [but] after 24 hours nobody contacted me.”