SEOUL • K-pop megastars BTS yesterday cancelled four Seoul concerts due in April as the number of coronavirus cases in South Korea passed 2,000.

The seven-piece boyband - one of the biggest acts in the world - had scheduled four gigs at the capital's Olympic Stadium to promote their new album, Map Of The Soul: 7.

More than 200,000 fans were expected to attend, their agency Big Hit Entertainment said in a statement, with "a number of global production companies and a large group of expert international crew" also involved.

It was "impossible at this time to predict the scale of the outbreak", it added, creating so much uncertainty that it was "unavoidable" the shows were cancelled "without further delay".

"We must take into consideration the health and safety of hundreds of thousands of guests as well as our artists," it said.

The BTS concerts are the latest events to be cancelled or postponed in South Korea as the outbreak spreads in the world's 12th-largest economy.

Among the affected events are the K-League football season and the World Team Table Tennis Championships, while museums and other public venues have closed.

BTS - or Bangtan Sonyeondan, which translates as Bulletproof Boy Scouts - are the first K-pop group to top the charts in the United States and Britain.

Their latest effort was given a simultaneous worldwide release online last Friday, becoming the most preordered South Korean album of all time, with more than four million copies sold before its release.

The coronavirus outbreak had forced them to livestream a press conference earlier this week - the seven members waving and bowing to a virtually empty hall and urging fans to take care of themselves.

"Health is always on our mind these days and our messages of facing your inner self and loving yourself is ultimately possible when you're healthy," said singer Jimin. "Especially when it is very risky outside these days, I hope you take care of your health."

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE