Coronavirus: Aussie pro skaters show Wuhan streets before Christmas Island evacuation

Two Australians have revealed the extent of the lockdown imposed in Wuhan, the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak.

Rob Kellet and Josh Nielsen in Wuhan, the epicentre of the Coronavirus outbreak.

Two Australians who made headlines for tearing through the locked-down city of Wuhan on rollerskates have landed on Christmas Island after evacuating on an Australian government flight.

Brisbane man Rob Kellett and his friend Josh Nielsen, from Sydney, posted a video to YouTube that showed the empty streets of coronavirus-stricken Wuhan, a city of 11 million people.

“We moved here about two months ago with the plan of just exploring the city, and the virus has just come into full effect, the city has been put on lockdown and we’ve just spent the last week kind of trapped in our apartment,” Mr Kellett said in the video posted on Saturday.

The 18-minute video shows lanterns in place for Wuhan’s Chinese New Year celebrations that never happened while the pair skate through empty streets and roads.

“Some people might say we’re stupid but you’ve got to find something that makes you happy in a crazy time,” he said.

“Don’t expect much. We are skating in the middle of a virus epidemic, we’re definitely taking it easy and we don’t want to hurt ourselves and end up in a Chinese hospital.”

The two friends, who perform extreme sports in other Chinese cities, moved to Wuhan in late 2019 to be closer to Kellett’s girlfriend.

Kellet and Nielsen filming skating tricks in Wuhan

“Everything was going well, until a few weeks ago when a new virus outbreak began,” Kellett said in the text posted below the video.

Grinding, skidding, and jumping, the two skaters perform a series of tricks in an area of Wuhan 15km away from the market where the virus is believed to have originated.

The two men took up the Australian government’s offer to evacuate from Wuhan, but Kellett’s Ukrainian girlfriend could not join them.

In a picture posted on Instagram of the two of them Kellet said it was the “hardest ‘see you later’ of my life”.

His girlfriend reflected the sentiments, in her own post she said “hope we will see each other again soon”.

Mr Kellett and Mr Nielsen will now spend 14 days in quarantine before being allowed to return to Australia.

“Not what we wanted from our time in Wuhan but better safe than sorry hey?” Mr Kellett said in a video posted on Instagram.