Six die on road, mob attacks hospital
By IANSTuesday, April 13, 2010
KOLKATA - Hundreds overran a hospital here Tuesday causing widespread destruction alleging doctors did not take enough care of the victims of a road accident that killed six people, police said.
A speeding truck collided head on with a van at Patuli in the adjoining district of 24-Parganas earlier in the day, killing six people and injuring four.
The injured were rushed to Kolkata’s Peerless Hospital, where the violence broke out.
Hospital Superintendent Sudipto Mitra told IANS: “The mob ransacked the emergency department, operation theatre, laboratory, pharmacy and every important section of the hospital. We still have around 200 patients in the hospital.
“I don’t know how we will treat them. The mob ransacked the hospital from 7 a.m. and it went on for two-and-a-half hours. Apparently it was a mob of 700 to 800 people.”
He claimed that the four injured people were being treated in the emergency department with saline and oxygen and were being taken to the x-ray department when the mob demanded their transfer to the ward.
“But we can’t transfer victims without preliminary treatment. The mob then started creating problems,” Mitra said.
The hospital gate was set on fire and a police jeep parked outside was damaged. The police opened fire to quell the crowd, residents said.
