Demolition team dismantle Chinese hospital with patients & doctors inside

Patients and doctors reportedly had to run for their lives after a demolition team began dismantling a hospital in China with them still inside.

Up to 30 people in camouflage uniform began demolishing part of the Fourth Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University with a bulldozer on Thursday morning, according to the Shanghai Daily.

The forced demolition is being linked to a land dispute with the local Huiji District government, after the hospital declined to relocate its radiology department and morgue to make way for a road expansion project.

Extensive damage was done to hospital equipment with national media reporting medical equipment worth around $607,000 was completely destroyed.

Three hospital staff were injured while trying to stop the destruction and six bodies being prepared in the mortuary were covered by falling debris.

Pictures of the Henan province hospital show collapsed walls and upturned medical devices.

Radiology department director Liu Chunguang described how he was conducting a chest scan on a patient when a “big hole” was stabbed in the side of the building forcing his patient to run to safety.

Millions of dollars worth of equipment was buried in the radiology department, along with six bodies in the hospital morgue, press officer for the hospital, Yuan Fang, told the state Xinhua news agency.

“Burying the bodies of patients in rubble is extremely disrespectful to the dead,” he said.

He confirmed the hospital has been forced to suspend activities.

Local government authorities have disputed claims people were inside during the incident and said the hospital had been asked to take down the areas designated for the road development.