London | Italy's sweeping lockdown of its north reverberated through Europe on Sunday, fuelling fears of similarly draconian measures from London to Berlin, as officials grappled with how to slow the rapid-fire spread of the coronavirus in several of the world's most open and democratic societies.

No other European country has yet gone as far as hard-hit Italy. But with confirmed cases of the virus spiking to more than 1000 in France and 900 in Germany, both countries moved to halt large public gatherings, as their leaders called emergency meetings to step up the response to the epidemic.