A city in Gansu Province is under police lockdown and a quarantine is in place after a local man died from the bubonic plague, reports Reuters. The 30,000 residents of Yumen are not allowed to leave while police roadblocks divert traffic away from the city.

A 38 year-old man named Wang contracted bubonic plague after finding a dead marmot. He chopped up the marmot to feed to his pet dog, but then got a fever. He was taken to hospital before dying the next day, July 16, at 5am. Doctors determined he had contracted the plague.

Deemed as “extremely contagious”, Wang’s remains have been cremated. More than 150 people have been placed in quarantine, and none have shown signs of infection as of Tuesday (July 22). On July 16, the city was divided up into four quarantine sectors with specific disease inspection areas.

Instances of bubonic plague have occurred periodically in China. In September 2012, a villager who found a dead marmot and ate it with other Litang, Sichuan residents died of the plague.

Photos: Hexun, Sohu TV screenshots, Weibo