New Delhi, Mar 13 (IANS): Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday reiterated that novel coronavirus was a huge problem and warned that the Indian economy would be destroyed if the government remained in a stupor.

"I will keep repeating this -- coronavirus is a huge problem. Ignoring the problem is not a solution. The Indian economy will be destroyed if strong action is not taken. The government is in a stupor," the former Congress chief tweeted.

His remarks came after a free fall in the Indian stock markets again on Friday, as both Nifty50 on the National Stock Exchange and the BSE Sensex hit lower circuit, with trading halted for the next 45 minutes.

The BSE Sensex fell over 3,000 points to trade at below the 30,000-mark. The index is currently at 29,687.52, lower by 3,090.62 points, or 9.43 per cent from the previous day's close of 32,778.14. It touched a low of 29,564.58 points on Friday.

Nifty50 is at 8,624.05, lower by 966.10 points, or 10.07 per cent from its previous close.

On Thursday also, Rahul Gandhi had targeted the Narendra Modi government and accused it of not taking adequate measures to contain coronavirus.

"There is no preparation. The government is sleeping. They don't realise that coronavirus is spreading in the country. It's going to have devastating consequences. We are heading to the highway for an accident as a nation," Rahul Gandhi said.

"Only after I had tweeted on COVID-19 that the Prime Minister started tweeting about it," he said.

The coronavirus crisis had worsened the already sinking Indian economy, the Congress leader claimed.

"We have got to start taking emergency measures now. It's already too late," he added.