Doctor attacked by grieving family of Covid victim as tensions boil over in India – World News

This is the shocking moment a doctor was battered over the head with metal pans by relatives of a deceased Covid patient in India as pandemic tensions boiled over.

Police have arrested 24 people in connection with the incident after the brutal attack on the medic, identified locally as Dr Seuj Jumar Senapati, in Odali Model Hospital in Assam.

The doctor was dragged down a flight of stairs as the deceased man’s relatives hurled abuse at him, with one woman taking a sandal off to thrash him.

They repeatedly whack him over his head and back as helpless Dr Senapati urges them to stop, pulling his face towards his hands to protect himself.

At one point, one member of the group pulls out a large broom and starts whacking the doctor with that too.

Other members of the group slap him across the face and kick him.

The group then pulled Dr Senapati from the floor and marched him through a hallway while they continued to attack him.

It was then that police officer nearby tried to intervene and take the medical professional to safety.

But the furious group were undeterred, pulling him down a short flight of stairs and outside onto a patch of grass where he falls to the floor again.

When a woman got out a sandal and began slapping the medic repeatedly he managed to slip away and rush to hospital.

The doctor said he went to check on the patient after relatives said his condition was serious, only to find that he had died.

Dr Senapati said: “The relatives of the patient complained that the patient’s condition was serious.

“When I reached the patient, I found that he had already died.

“The relatives then immediately vandalised the furniture at the hospital and attacked me.”

The attack comes after similar footage emerged in April when 20 family appeared to surround a young doctor after their relative died of Covid.

The group were said to have suspected the patient died from a lack of oxygen while being treated by the medic in the back of ambulance.

The doctor, identified locally as 25-year-old Dr Siddhant Totla, had been tending to the 65-year-old man on the way to hospital.

He was reportedly surrounded by the victim’s relatives and set upon with objects including a metal pole in front of horrified witnesses.

The country continues to battle a Covid crisis which saw daily deaths top a world record-breaking 4,500 at its peak in May.