Armed men stormed a hospital treating Ebola patients in eastern Congo on Sunday evening, forcing medical staff to evacuate patients as gunfire was heard in the area.
The attack targeted Mongbwalu General Hospital in Ituri province, which is at the centre of the latest Ebola outbreak.
Dr Richard Lokudu, the hospital’s medical director, told the Associated Press that the attackers demanded the bodies of two relatives be handed over.
"There was gunfire and the medics were trying to evacuate the patients and the staff," Lokudu said.
He added that the hospital was on "general alert" but could not provide further details, and it was not immediately clear if anyone was injured.
The incident is the third attack on healthcare facilities in a week in the region, according to him.
On Saturday, residents of Mongbwalu attacked and set fire to a tent set up for suspected and confirmed Ebola cases by Doctors Without Borders.
Eighteen people with suspected infections left the facility and remain unaccounted for, Lokudu revealed.
On Thursday, another treatment centre in Rwampara was burned down after families were barred from retrieving the body of a man suspected to have died of Ebola.
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The World Health Organization (WHO) earlier declared the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern.
WHO said the outbreak poses a "very high" risk to Congo but that the risk of global spread remains low.
Bodies of those who die from Ebola can remain highly contagious, and authorities have mandated that burials be managed by officials where possible.
The government announced on Friday that funeral wakes and gatherings of more than 50 people would be banned in northeastern Congo to curb transmission.
Earlier on Sunday, the Congolese Ministry of Communication said on X that there were 904 suspected Ebola cases, mostly in Ituri province, up from more than 700 previously reported.
It put the total suspected deaths at 119, though regional figures it released added to 220.
The outbreak involves the Bundibugyo virus, a rare type of Ebola with no available vaccine.
It spread undetected for weeks in Ituri after the first reported death in late April in Bunia, the provincial capital.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies announced on Saturday that three of its volunteers had died from the outbreak in Mongbwalu.
The agency insisted it observed they contracted the virus on 27 March while handling bodies during a humanitarian mission unrelated to Ebola.
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