For any motorist, finding oneself in hospital after a car accident is a nightmare scenario, but for one Chinese car-accident victim, it was only the start of his troubles.

Mr Yuan's doctors contacted his loved ones after a car accident in Hunan province, prompting 17 of his girlfriends to rush to his bedside.

Pull the other Yuan

However, each woman was astonished to find so many other females at the hospital – similarly worried about Yuan's condition.

Xiao Li, who has been seeing the man for 18 months, told the local Xiaoxiang Chen Bao paper: "I was really worried when I heard that he was in hospital. But when I started seeing more and more beautiful girls show up, I couldn't cry any more."

The Yuan that I want

Another woman revealed that she had been providing Mr Yuan with money for nearly a decade. Yet another girlfriend said she had been planning a wedding with the prolific lover.

Perhaps most surprising of all, one woman told reporters that she already had a child with the man.

Car Crash Casanova

Thousands of comments have been posted on China's social media networks about the news item. While Mr Yuan has been heavily criticised by many, others have been impressed by his multi-tasking skills.

However, such compliments will be of little comfort to Mr Yuan – whose name he shares with China's currency – because local police are looking into allegations of fraud by the ‘car crash Casanova’, as he has been labelled.