Guwahati, Sept. 23: Next time your mobile handset rings out your favourite ringtone, check carefully where the call is coming from before answering it. There could be a bolt waiting for you.

Mobile phones are causing panic among users in Assam after several persons sustained injuries and developed health complications after they received calls on their handsets.

The Hyderabad-based firm, GVK-EMRI, which runs a fleet of world class ambulances in the state, today sounded an alert and said incoming calls displaying red and blue numbers on mobile phones are causing health hazards in various parts of the state.

Kuldeep Raj Saxena, the head of hospital relations (Assam), EMRI told The Telegraph that the firm had to press its Mritunjoy 108 ambulances into service to move those affected to various hospitals. Five persons have so far sustained injuries or developed health complications after receiving calls from certain numbers on their handsets.

“At 7.11pm on Wednesday, the call centre of 108 ambulance service received a call that one Arjun Das of Barama in Baksa district became unconscious on receiving an incoming call,” Saxena said.

“Purna Das of Musalpur in Baksa district made a call at 7.01pm the same day to say that another patient was bleeding from the nose and mouth after receiving a call,” he said.

He said calls were also received by the service from Kamal Malakar of Hajo and Ruma Laila of Kamalpur in Kamrup district last evening claiming that their relatives were having health complications after receiving incoming calls.

Wahida Khatoon from Goalpara town made a call this afternoon seeking an ambulance to take her to the nearest health centre after she developed health problems.

“While we could provide ambulances to Arjun Das, Kamal Malakar and Wahida Khatoon to take them to nearby health centres or hospitals, the rest could not be attended to because they live in inaccessible areas,” Saxena said.

Jadav Malakar of Bhomarbari in Hajo, who became unconscious on Wednesday evening after receiving a call, told The Telegraph that he felt an electric shock and immediately threw away the handset. He was rushed to the Hajo public health center and underwent medication.

“I sustained minor injuries in my hand. Now I am feeling very weak and cannot hear properly,” Malakar said.

While the mobile service providers describe the entire episode as “lot of bunkum and rubbish”, a section of experts do not want to rule out the possibility of a technical glitch as the cause of the incidents and emphasised the need for a scientific study.

N.N. Banerjee, chief general manager of BSNL, Assam Telecom Circle, said the incidents cannot be related to any kind of technical glitch under any circumstances. He said the lithium battery of the mobile handsets is not capable of generating minimum energy to produce electric shock or explosion.

Sources said one Rakhi Nath, 25, was injured when the mobile phone being used by her exploded at Rangaphal village near Namati in Nalbari district last evening.

A radiologist at the GMCH said electromagnetic radiation from base station antennas of mobile networks and mobile phones could pose serious health hazards to people, particularly children below 16 years, pregnant women and those using medical aids.

“A study conducted by the Telecommunication Engineering Centre under the department of telecommunications, says mobile phones and radio terminals radiate RF (radio frequency) energy that heat up the tissues. Users keep their handsets close to the ear, which is very near to the brain. It has been suspected that continuous use of mobile phone for longer duration may damage some brain tissues,” the radiologist said. A senior telecom service provider official in Guwahati said the recent cases reported to the MRI could have something to do with the service or the handset.