A mob allegedly attacked a car carrying employees of the Indian Council of Medical Research-National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases (ICMR-NICED) and a US public health professional after the vehicle ran over a stray dog in Beleghata on Tuesday morning, police said.

The team came under attack around 11.35am on Raja Janmenjoy Road, in front of the main gate of Infectious Diseases Hospital in Beleghata, which houses the ICMRNICED campus.

Police said that within seconds of the dog being run over, a mob of around 150 people surrounded the Swift Dzire, dragged out the driver and beat him up. The driver, Biswajit Das, passed out.

An ICMR-NICED official said the car was ferrying five people. One of them was Casey Siesel, a public health programme associate at the Rollins School of Public Health in Emory University in the US. The rest were officials of ICMR-NICED.

The team was returning to the institute from a field visit to Tiljala and Topsia.

“A colleague who was in the car called me up. He was crying for help and I, along with a few others from our institute, ran to the spot, which was in a lane across the road in front of the hospital gate,” the official said.

“When I reached the spot I saw the windscreen of the car smashed. Casey was shaking in fear on the road. The driver was assaulted and lying senseless on the road. I escorted Casey back to the campus. He was scared.”

The official said the mob had hurled two bricks at the car when Casey was inside.

“A group of women residents of the area saved the team,” he said.

Casey had come a few days back to work on a project related to the environment’s role in the spread of typhoid.

Driver Das was taken to the NRS Medical College and Hospital. He was later shifted to Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals, where he was treated in the emergency ward.

Officers of Beleghata police station have started a case against unknown persons based on a complaint lodged by the driver. No one was arrested till Tuesday evening.

“There is no mention of any occupant other than the driver being hit or injured,” said an officer of the east suburban division of the city police.

Officers of Beleghata police station carried out raids in search those who were part of the mob.

Sources in the police said the mob was instigated by local Trinamul leaders. Metro contacted two ruling party councillors — one who represents the area where the incident happened and the other from an adjoining ward.

One of them denied knowledge about any such incident, while the other did not respond to calls from this newspaper.

Tuesday’s attack has exposed how vulnerable motorists or pedestrians are to road rage.

On October 17, a lawyer had allegedly pushed and slapped an elderly person, causing his death, for taking too long to board his car.