A group of men in Lucknow allegedly hijacked a government ambulance for use by a Covid patient while it was on its way to pick up a non-Covid patient. Eventually, both patients died.

The ambulance driver said he was travelling to Unique Hospital, which had no oxygen left, on Wednesday afternoon to shift Vinay Kumar, who had fever and breathing difficulties but had tested Covid-negative, to another hospital.

“A group of men on two motorcycles stopped me on Campbell Road. They looked agitated and ready to beat me. They asked me to follow them,” the driver said, requesting not to be named.

“They took me to a place where a woman, who looked in her mid-50s, lay on a roadside bench. They said she was a Covid patient. We carried her into the ambulance and started giving her oxygen. Two of the men sat inside the ambulance while the rest led the way on their motorcycles.

“We first went to Era Hospital, where she didn’t get a bed. We then went to another hospital. By then there was no oxygen left in the cylinder and she had died. The men took the body home in another vehicle.”

Santosh Kumar, a relative of Vinay, 50, said the patient had been admitted to Unique on Tuesday. “On Wednesday, the doctors said the hospital had just an hour’s oxygen left and suggested Vinay be shifted to another hospital,” he said.

“It took 45 minutes to get in touch with 108 (the ambulance emergency number), but no ambulance arrived even after 90 minutes. Then the ambulance driver called to say the vehicle had been hijacked. We called another ambulance but Vinay had died by the time it arrived.”

Rajendra Singh, chief medical officer for Lucknow district, said he had not heard of the incident and would look into it if a formal complaint was lodged.