(COLOMBO) – The driver of an ambulance and his assistant were arrested after a female doctor travelling in the same vehicle feared they were going to harm her in a bizarre incident reported from Sri Lanka’s northern town of Vavuniya, police said on Thursday.
The doctor who had sought a ride to the bus station had panicked and jumped from the ambulance after she found that the vehicle had deviated from the route and was heading for a lonely spot.
The driver both ethnic Tamils and the doctor from the majority Sinhalese community could not communicate owing to the difference in the languages.
The driver had tried to explain that they had taken a short cut in order to provide meals to patients at a Government hospital and that was that.
But the doctor raised the alarm which attracted residents in the area and the ambulance driver and his assistant were hauled up before the local police station.
Following questioning of the doctor and the ambulance driver it was later found out that a failure in communication had led to the situation.
The group was later released without any charges and the complaint by the doctor was dismissed.