World markets rocked by coronavirus fears

An early plunge of 7% on Wall Street triggered a trading halt as a sell-off hitting global markets continued amid the coronavirus outbreak.

The Dow Jones industrials dropped more than 1,600 points, or 7%, and the S&P 500 fell a similar amount.

Trading resumed after 15 minutes.

The rout came after US President Trump imposed a travel ban on most of Europe and offered few new measures to contain the economic impact of the coronavirus outbreak.

Benchmarks in Europe fell more than 7% even after the European Central Bank announced more stimulus measures.

World markets are enduring violent swings amid uncertainty about how badly the outbreak will hit the economy.