A thief who sneaked into MR Bangur Hospital on Sunday night was killed when a heavy wooden door he had prised open accidentally slammed on his neck.

A clerk found the man, aged around 35, standing with his head stuck between the door and the frame on the third floor of a hospital building around 11am on Monday. When the man did not respond to questions, the clerk moved closer and found that he had died.

The man was peeping into a passage that led to the Tollygunge hospital’s storerooms to see if it was empty when the door swung shut after a pile of furniture collapsed on it. The column of precariously stacked wooden benches, chairs and iron racks was probably disturbed as he tried to force open the door, which was usually shut, after breaking its lock.

“The man was wearing a blue t-shirt and a pair of green trousers. There was something about the way he was standing that sent a shiver up my spine,” said the clerk.

The hospital authorities confirmed that the man was neither an employee nor a patient.

“We do not have any idea who that man was. We have informed the police, who removed the body and are now investigating the matter,” said H.K. Chanda, the medical superintendent of the hospital.

According to the investigators, the man had climbed the drainpipe to the roof of the building before walking down the staircase to the third floor.

“He could have died of suffocation or heart attack induced by shock. It is also possible his neck snapped as the door slammed on it. The post-mortem will reveal the cause,” said D.P. Singh, the additional superintendent (industrial) of South 24-Parganas police.

A senior hospital official said criminals and drug addicts freely move in and out of the hospital compound after dark. “On an average, there are three to four thefts in the hospital every month. Complaints to the police have been useless.”

The official added: “There are eight buildings that house 12 wards. After a lot of persuasion, the police have posted a 10-man team at the hospital. Besides, there are only 16 security guards. This is not enough for a large hospital and the thieves take full advantage.”

According to him, the security guards concentrate on the wards and hardly get time or scope to patrol the compound at night. “I don’t know what the policemen deployed at the hospital do. Thieves raid the compound regularly and the cops have been mute spectators.”