Millions of people around the world are being urged to stay at home as often as possible - avoiding all but 'essential' journeys.

While everyone miay be sharing the experience of staying indoors, not all countries are choosing to enforce lockdown measures in the same way - with some employing weird and wonderful tactics to keep residents at home.

Here are some of the most bizarre.

Dumping manure

In Sweden, the university town of Lund is planning to dump chicken manure on the streets to deter its 30,000 residents from gathering to celebrate Walpurgis Night - the eve of the Christian feast day of Saint Walpurga.

Officials have said it will be a good chance to fertilise lawns while also deterring people from sitting outside, thanks to the horrible smell.

Dumping sand

In a similar - though less smelly - move, police in Southern California, in the United States, dumped 33 tonnes of sand onto a skate park to deter users from using it during lockdown.

Dousing beaches with bleach

Over in the Spanish province of Cádiz, officials decided to douse a beach with bleach with the aim of protecting people as lockdown begins to ease in the badly-hit country.

However, the move has been criticised as environmentally unfriendly, with experts saying the disinfectant will have killed any living creatures that came in contact with it.

Using ID numbers

In certain Colombian towns in South America, residents are only allowed outside depending on the last number of their national ID number.

For instance, those ending in 0,7 and 8 might be allowed out on a Monday, while those with a number ending in 1, 6 and 9 might be allowed out on a Tuesday.

Using robot police

At the start of April in Tunisia, North Africa, officials sent out a so-called 'robo cop' onto the streets of the capital to police people suspected of breaking lockdown rules.

Early on in the outbreak, certain areas of China used drones which warned citizens to stay in their homes.

Dressing up as coronavirus 'zombies'

In the Indian city of Delhi, officials have donned coronavirus "zombie" costumes, wearing spiky red Covid-19-like helmets, full hazmat suits and gloves to deter citizens from staying on the streets during the outbreak.