An Eastern Cape man was stabbed to death at the casualty ward at the All Saints Hospital in Ngcobo in the early hours of Sunday morning.
Provincial Health Department spokesperson, Sizwe Kupelo says doctors had been busy attending to a patient with a stab wound to the chest when a knife-wielding man budged in and said he wanted to finish the patient off.
He says there were 10 guards deployed at various points in the hospital, but the man forced his way through casualty security by wielding a knife.
The doctor and nurses ran for their lives while the security guards could not prevent the man from stabbing the patient to death.
The police were called but the attacker had already fled the scene.
Kupelo says security measures are being reviewed at the hospital.
In a separate incident, a vigilant security guard saved what could have been another killing, when he managed to sneak behind a man who had pulled a firearm from a police officer at the Uitenhage Provincial Hospital, and disarmed him before he could shoot.
Kupelo says the man is suspected to be mentally ill.
