Well-wishers of M Karunanidhi lathi charged outside Chennai hospital

Chennai: Chaotic scenes were witnessed late Sunday night outside a private city hospital where M Karunanidhi is admitted with police resorting to lathi charging emotional well-wishers of the DMK leader.

Hundreds of DMK party workers have been camping outside the Kauvery Hospital for most parts of this week and on Sunday, rumours about their beloved leader's health status led to disorder. Many of the gathered people wanted to know how Karunanidhi was faring and some reportedly ran out of patience. That there were unconfirmed reports that Karunanidhi had passed away further added fuel to the fire.

While the security outside the hospital was increased, things got out of hand when a number of supporters reportedly attempted to crash through the cordon outside the building. Police officials resorted to lathi charge to bring the situation under control.

 

#WATCH: Outside visuals of Chennai's Kauvery hospital, where DMK Chief M Karunanidhi is admitted. Police lathi charge crowd gathered outside. #TamilNadu pic.twitter.com/3fkR0LFlb1 — ANI (@ANI) July 29, 2018

 

DMK's A Raja also tried to calm nerves and urged party cadres to not believe in rumours and wait for official updates. The hospital, in a medical bulletin at 2150hrs, informed that while there was a 'transient setback' in Karunanidhi's clinical condition, his vital signs were returning to normal.

Karunanidhi has been in and out of hospital in recent months and was admitted to Kauvery Hospital on July 18 where he underwent a procedure to replace his tracheostomy tube.  He had the tube placed in December of 2016 to help improve his breathing. Hospital authorities said that Karunanidhi had to be brought back to the hospital because he was having breathing difficulties caused by a throat and lung infection. He has also reportedly suffering from a urinary tract infection.