Chief minister Ibobi Singh visits the injured at RIMS after the recent bomb blasts. (PTI)

Imphal, Oct. 24: Doctors shut down the casualty wing of the Regional Institute of Medical Sciences for nearly eight hours last night after an IRB jawan allegedly threatened the hospital staff with a gun.

A number of 6 IRB personnel and commandos came to the hospital carrying a man with a bleeding nose around 12.30am.

The injured, a police commando who had reportedly hurt himself in an accident, was referred to the ENT department by a doctor.

“Because of some miscommunication, the security personnel began abusing the doctor verbally. On hearing the commotion, senior surgeon Devakanta Sharma tried to pacify them. But IRB jawan Dhaneshwar Singh whipped out a small weapon and threatened to shoot him,” superintendent of the hospital, Yumnam Mohen Singh, told reporters today.

By the time IRB personnel left after the injured commando was administered first aid, the news of the threat had spread to the rest of the hospital.

Doctors and medical students soon gathered and shut down the ward around 12.45am.

When the doctors’ agitation refused to die down even in the morning, Mohen Singh contacted director-general of police Yumnam Joykumar Singh at 6am.

The police chief promptly sent Imphal West superintendent of police L. Kailun and commandant of 6 IRB, Luxmi Prasad, to the hospital.

The doctors went about their duties only after the IRB jawan who had pulled out his gun apologised to the doctor in the presence of his commandant, the SP and the hospital superintendent.

Work at the casualty ward finally began at 8.30am.