Sirte hospital desperate - Red Cross
2011-10-12 19:43
Beirut - The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Wednesday that the situation of a major hospital in the Libyan port city of Sirte was "desperate" due to fierce fighting.
"The staff of the International Committee of the Red Cross evacuated a total of 25 war-wounded and other patients from Ibn Sina Hospital in Sirte between October 10 and 11," said an ICRC statement released in Beirut.
Sirte and Bani Walid are the two last bastions where die hard loyalists of the Libyan fugitive leader Muammar Gaddafi are still fighting the country's new rulers.
"The situation inside the hospital is very chaotic and distressing," said Patrick Schwaerzler, the ICRC delegate in charge of the evacuations from Sirte.
"When we arrived there, we found patients with severe burns and shrapnel wounds. Some had sustained recent amputations. A few were half-conscious. They were lying among crowds of other people who were also asking us for help," Schwaerzler added.
He added that the hospital had been partly destroyed and was not functional any more.
This was the fourth time since the beginning of October that the ICRC had entered Sirte for humanitarian tasks, the statement added.
- SAPA