Two patients killed as Doctors Without Borders ambulance attacked in Haiti

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has said that at least two patients were killed when its ambulance was stopped and attacked earlier this week in Haiti's capital Port-au-Prince.

The MSF staff said on Wednesday that they were violently attacked on Monday after "members of a vigilante group and law enforcement officers" stopped the ambulance.

The ambulance, transporting three young people with gunshot wounds, was halted about 100 metres (yards) from the MSF hospital in the Drouillard area of the capital and forced to transfer the patients to a public hospital, MSF said.

The group said police attempted to arrest the patients before escorting the ambulance to the hospital, where "law enforcement officers and members of a self-defence group surrounded the ambulance, slashed the tires, and tear-gassed MSF staff inside the vehicle to force them out."

The wounded patients were taken a short distance away and at least two were executed, the group said.

"The act is a shocking display of violence and it seriously calls into question MSF's ability to continue delivering essential care to the Haitian people," said Christophe Garnier, MSF's head of mission.