Chen Qiushi has not been heard from since 7pm local time Thursday, with calls to his mobile phone going unanswered.

His reports have detailed horrific scenes including a woman frantically calling family on her phone as she sits next to a relative lying dead in a wheelchair and the helpless situation of patients in the overstretched hospitals.

Mr Qiushi’s disappearance came as heroic 34-year-old Chinese doctor Li Wenliang, who sounded the alarm on coronavirus, was announced to have died after allegedly contracting the disease while treating patients at Wuhan’s Central Hospital.

Fellow Chinese citizen journalist Fang Bin, who has published videos of bodies loaded into a bus, was also arrested by authorities last week. He has since been released.