Mob goes on a rampage after patient's death in Kolkata hospital, thrashes 3 nurses

KOLKATA: At least three nurses of Vidyasagar State General Hospital in Kolkata were thrashed and injured in a rampage late Friday by a mob, after a 32-year-old patient died from double heart attack.

One of the nurses needed hospitalisation after the mayhem at the hospital that saw a mob of around 100 people smash chairs and tables, ransack rooms, shatter glass panes and fling medicines and injections from shelves. It took a joint police commissioner and his team almost an hour to rein in the mob, comprising family members and neighbours of the deceased, Seikh Mehmood Alam.

Alam's family alleged he died during an ECG, and demanded an explanation and documents other than the death certificate. Arguments snowballed into the violence. Alam's family drove away with his body in an ambulance only after the cops arrived, said a hospital official.

Nine people have been arrested. Nurses and doctors questioned official claims of "90% progress" in ensuring safety at hospitals barely four months after the RG Kar horror, saying no security personnel could be found during the violence on Friday.

(With inputs from Sarthak Ganguly)