Saudi Arabia: Hospital patient seizes ambulance to escape

Cairo: A man, believed to be psychologically ill, seized an ambulance to escape from a hospital in the Saudi port city of Jeddah, local media said Thursday.

Taking advantage of the ambulance medics’ preoccupation with another patient inside the hospital, the man drove the vehicle amid unsuccessful attempts by security guards to stop him. He drove on the opposite side of a road inside the hospital and sped off outside, Okaz newspaper said.

He was later stopped in the vicinity after hospital officials reported the incident to security agencies, the paper added.

The Saudi Red Crescent said that a person had stolen a hospital ambulance while its medics were busy handing over a patient.

A video posted online shows a man in the driving seat of a Red Crescent ambulance purportedly in a Saudi hospital while guards try in vain to stop him before the vehicle speeds off.