Russian forces reportedly take patients and staff hostage at Mariupol hospital

Russian forces reportedly take hundreds hostage at a hospital in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol.

Sergei Orlov, Mariupol’s mayor, tells the BBC that around 400 people at the Regional Intensive Care Hospital are “hostages.”

“We received information that the Russian army captured our biggest hospital,” Orlov says.

The Russians are “using patients and doctors like hostages,” he says.

In a quote shared by the area’s governor, a hospital employee says, “It is impossible to get out of the hospital. There is a heavy shooting, we sit in the basement. Vehicles have not been able to drive to the hospital for two days. High-rise buildings are burning around.”

The Kyiv Independent says the area’s governor also reported the hospital hostage situation. It says the Russians took residents of neighboring homes to the hospital and won’t allow them to leave.

Other reports said patients and staff are among the hostages.

One of the hospital’s employees alerted authorities to the situation, the Pravda news outlet says.

The hospital was hit by a Russian airstrike last week.