Ambulance attacked over suspected virus case
ISTANBUL
AA Photo
An ambulance that was transferring a person with a suspected coronavirus case to a hospital came under attack in Istanbul’s Pendik district on March 29.
An individual stopped the ambulance on its way to the hospital, questioning the crew on the identity of the person on the vehicle and asked if the person on the vehicle had the virus.
The individual attacked the vehicle, throwing punches when the health crew refused to answer. The individual followed the crew with his vehicle and forced the ambulance to stop and smashed the windows of the vehicle with a cobblestone.
Following the incident, security forces detained three people who were allegedly involved in the attack. A female suspect was released after questioning at the police station while two other suspects were arrested for damaging public property.
One of the suspects rejected the claims, saying that the incident was not related to the coronavirus but due to a quarrel with the ambulance driver.
In his version of the story, the suspect argued that his friend wanted to know if the crew arrived at the scene to help the friend’s mother who suffers from asthma. But the driver was rude and intentionally hit their rental car after exchanging harsh words and ran away. They tried to stop the ambulance and hurled the cobblestone as he lost his temper, he said.
