Search for six-year-old Ebola patient after armed men storm DR Congo hospital

Authorities in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo are searching for a six-year-old Ebola patient and her mother after armed men stormed the hospital where they were being treated.

The child was taken from Wanamahika Hospital, in the city of Butembo, by "very angry" men with knives, local health official Dr Lubambo Maboko Gaston said in a statement.

It is unclear whether the men were known to the child, but suspicion and fear surrounding Ebola treatment centres have been rife during the current outbreak.

In an interview with the Reuters news agency, Gaston urged the child and her mother to go to a health centre, as they risked "worsening their health" and "infecting their relatives".

Ebola treatment facilities have come under attack multiple times during the ongoing outbreak, in which almost 200 deaths and 840 cases have been confirmed.

Last month, police in the town of Mongbwalu fired shots in the air after angry crowds attempted to reclaim the bodies of loved ones who had died at a health facility.

Days before, crowds set fire to isolation tents in hospital in Rwampara - a town 85km (53 miles) south-east of Mongbwalu - after they were prevented from taking the body of a man thought to have died from Ebola.

The body of a dead Ebola victim is highly infectious and can lead to the virus spreading further when prepared for burial.