Police have arrested six people from Dhaka’s Shahbagh and Ramna areas for spreading rumours and misleading information on the coronavirus outbreak, using leaflets.

Shahbagh police station Officer-in Charge (OC) said: “An old man was arrested from the area while he was distributing leaflets on Saturday evening.

“The man had hundreds of leaflets in his possession. The leaflets had a contact address, where we are investigating now.”

Meanwhile, five others distributing the same leaflet were arrested from Ramna area. They are also being interrogated, the OC added.

In primary interrogation, the arrestees admitted that different groups in 32 pick-up vans are distributing such leaflets in the city, among which police have seized one.

Bangladesh has so far recorded five deaths and 48 infections from Covid-19, a pandemic announced by the World Health Organization (WHO).

The fast spreading coronavirus has claimed more than 30,800 lives and infected over 664,500 people across the world, according to Worldometer.