A seven-day-old baby died in an ambulance at Chandgram of Moulvibazar after transport workers during their strike yesterday held the vehicle for around an hour and a half.

The girl's father Kuton Mia, of Ajmir in Baralekha upazila, first took the sick child to Baralekha Upazila Health Complex, but doctors there referred her to Sylhet MAG Osmani Medical College Hospital, said Akbar Ali, uncle of the deceased.

Without delay, the parents started for the hospital in the ambulance around 10:00am but the vehicle was repeatedly stopped on the road, including at Baralekha Bazar and Daser Bazar, the uncle said.

When they reached Chandgram, the ambulance was halted again and this time its driver was beaten up and the key to the vehicle was taken away. 

The ambulance was held there for around an hour and half and as the condition of the child worsened, the parents around 2:30pm took her to a nearby clinic where doctors declared her dead.

“My niece would have been alive had the workers not stopped the ambulance. They snatched the key of the ambulance and even asked for money for letting them go," the uncle claimed.

Abdul Matin, general secretary of CNG Transport Workers Union of Baralekha upazila unit, claimed that autorickshaw workers had put up barricades at different points on the road but no one was involved in stopping the ambulance.

Abu Yusuf, additional police superintendent of Moulvibazar, said it was an unfortunate incident and that police would act once they received a complaint.