Angry parents of Pakistani students stuck in the locked down province at the centre of China’s coronavirus outbreak confronted government ministers at a meeting on Wednesday, demanding their children are evacuated.

Pakistan has so far ruled out bringing home the more than 1,000 students in Hubei province and its capital Wuhan, where three-quarters of the more than 2,000 deaths from the outbreak of the flu-like virus have been recorded.

Health minister Zafar Mirza and minister for overseas citizens Zulfiqar Bukhari briefed parents for the first time on Wednesday, telling them the students’ welfare was better off in China and Pakistan did not have adequate facilities to quarantine them if they returned.

But hundreds interrupted the briefing, with some seizing microphones to say they did not want to listen to officials until their children were returned.

“Bring our kids back, they have been in lockdown for 25 days...they are not getting any support...from you,” one family member said.