The victim was an 80-year-old woman from China’s Hubei province, according to French Health Minister Agnès Buzyn.

She arrived in France on 16 January and was placed in quarantine in hospital on 25 January, she said.

Only three deaths had previously been reported outside mainland China – in Hong Kong, the Philippines and Japan.

However, more than 1,500 people have died from the virus within China, mostly in Hubei where it first emerged.