Three patients die as lawyers clash with doctors in Pakistan hospital

LAHORE, Pakistan: At least three heart patients died on Wednesday (Dec 11) after a group of lawyers attacked doctors at a cardiac hospital in Pakistan's eastern city of Lahore, officials and ministers said.

"Three patients including an elderly woman died after doctors failed to provide them timely treatment and remained engaged in averting the assault," Punjab provincial health minister Yasmeen Rashid said at a televised press conference in Lahore.

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A group of more than 200 lawyers, who had ongoing issues with the doctors of the Punjab Institute of Cardiology, stormed the hospital, vandalising property and damaging dozens of vehicles of visitors and setting ablaze a police van, Rashid said.

The incident was apparently triggered by video clips some doctors had made ridiculing the lawyers.

Zulfikar Hameed, the Lahore city police chief, said the lawyers also smashed window panes and doors and equipment at the cardiology hospital.

Some of the protesters fired gunshots and pelted arriving police with stones and bricks, according to a hospital doctor, Ashraf Nizami.

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Several lawyers were arrested, police said.

"It was catastrophic for hours," Nizami said, adding that a 70-year-old female patient had died, and several patients were left unattended for hours, during the violence.

Nizami said the attackers forced doctors and nurses to flee, leaving patients in emergency and intensive care unattended.

Police fired tear gas to quell the mob while terrified patients and hospital staff fled to safety, officials said.

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