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Hundreds of decomposing bodies found at Tripoli hospital

2011-08-27 12:37:58 GMT+7 (ICT)

TRIPOLI (BNO NEWS) -- More than 200 decomposing bodies have been found abandoned at a hospital in a district of the Libyan capital, Tripoli, the BBC reported on Saturday.

BBC correspondent Wyre Davies found corpses of men, women and children on beds, in corridors and around the hospital in the Abu Salim district, one of the main strongholds of forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi's regime.

According to residents, the patients were left there to die after the hospital was closed because the medical staff fled when clashes erupted nearby between rebel forces and Gaddafi's loyalists.

Some of the people brought to the hospital were still alive although they presented very bad injuries. Some had already died, the residents told the BBC correspondent.

It was not immediately known who the victims were, but some were civilians as children were among them. Some may have belonged to Gaddafi or rebel fighters, while some are apparently African mercenaries, the BBC correspondent said.

"These bodies have been here in the hospital for five days. Nobody has taken care of them to bring them to the mortuary, to identify them, to bury them," Osama Pilil, resident of the Abu Salim district, told the BBC.

"We need help. It is very urgent. There is no government here. We need professional help, from the International Red Cross, because there has been a massacre in Abu Salim," Pilil added.

Some residents have accused Gaddafi’s regime of murdering those at the hospital, but it remains unknown how exactly they died, Davies concluded. The Libyan capital has seen increased fighting in recent days as the rebel forces have advanced into the city.

Libya has been engulfed in a civil war since an uprising against Muammar Gaddafi's regime began in mid-February. It is uncertain how many people have been killed, but some estimates put the death toll as high as 20,000.

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