Police find the woman hiding in the trunk of a car at a checkpoint at an entrance to Shanghai on the G60 Expressway in Songjiang District.

Both the woman and the driver of the car have been placed in quarantine after breaking the city's rules covering the coronavirus outbreak.

A woman was found hiding in the trunk of a car when trying to enter Shanghai via the G60 Expressway in Songjiang District on Tuesday morning, police said.

The woman, who is said to be from Hubei Province, the center of current epidemic, was discovered by police at a checkpoint at 8am.

The woman, who works in Shanghai, had gone to her hometown on January 22 for the Chinese New Year holiday. She was returning in a friend’s car from a city that’s not her hometown and had hid in the trunk to avoid being caught and put into quarantine, police said.

People found at checkpoints to have come from key epidemic areas are required to be in home quarantine for 14 days.

Police said both the woman and the car’s driver, a man, had normal temperatures.

Both have been taken into quarantine, having broken the city’s rules dealing with the coronavirus epidemic, police said.