Chennai, Nov 13 (IANS): A duty doctor was stabbed by a youth at Kalaignar Centenary Hospital in Chennai on Wednesday.

The doctor has been admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the same hospital and is in a critical condition.

According to eyewitnesses, the hospital staff apprehended the assailant and handed him over to the police.

The hospital and its surroundings are tense following the incident.

The victim Dr Balaji, a senior oncologist, was attacked at the Kalaignar Centenary Government Multi-Specialty Hospital at around 10:30 A.M. He received several stab wounds in his neck, head and upper chest and was rushed to the Intensive Care Unit in critical condition.

Police arrested the assailant, identified as 25-year-old Vigneshwaran from Perungalathur.

While police sources told IANS that the exact motive behind the attack is still unclear, a hospital staff member, who wished to remain anonymous, informed IANS that the youth reportedly took this extreme step after expressing dissatisfaction with the treatment provided to his mother at the hospital.

The police stated that more details would be available after a thorough interrogation of the accused.

Following the incident, doctors’ unions in Tamil Nadu are reportedly planning a flash strike. Further details on the incident are awaited.

The incident is sure to spark widespread condemnation from doctors across the country, especially as it comes in the wake of the rape and murder of a woman doctor in R.G. Kar Medical College & Hospital in Kolkata in August that had sparked off nationwide protests by the medical fraternity.

Junior doctors, accompanied by thousands of common people in West Bengal and in other parts of India, conducted many rallies in protest against the ghastly incident and demanded quick justice for the victim and security for doctors on duty.

The Supreme Court of India had to step in and ask the doctors to return to work, in view of the widespread strikes across India over the issue.

Doctors have been feeling insecure due to the frequent attacks on them by relatives of patients and have been demanding better security for the medical fraternity.