A Chinese city allegedly snatched a shipment of face masks headed to another municipality grappling with hundreds of coronavirus cases, reports said.

The southwestern city of Dali was accused of swiping 598 boxes of face masks bound for nearby Chongqing, state media reported.

Dali has eight confirmed cases of the deadly illness, while Changqing has reported 400 patients with the coronavirus.

Chongqing ordered the city to return the shipment, but the Dali government said it already distributed the masks and could not retrieve them, the report said.

The episode sparked outrage on social media, where many users accused Dali of theft.

The local government blamed the incident on two city officials, one of whom was removed from his post, state media said.

The deadly virus — which emerged in December in Wuhan — has led to 563 deaths and more than 28,000 cases in mainland China.

With Post wires