Doctors and nurses in a south China hospital are wearing helmets to shield themselves from attacks by a group of people who have abused and tussled with them over a medical dispute.

"It's kind of weird but we have no other choice. For our safety, our hospital decided to give every one a helmet, including doctors, nurses, accountants and even utility men," said an official named Zhang with the Shanxia Hospital in the coastal city of Shenzhen on Sunday.

The conflict began when a patient who was checking out from the hospital after 17 days of treatment suddenly became breathless and died, said Zhang.

The patient came to Shanxia Hospital three weeks ago after a traffic accident and initially responded well to treatment.

The hospital informed the relatives of the dead person of the possible cause of death and asked for an autopsy to be carried out, but the request was refused, said Zhang.

Since then a group of people came to the hospital each day, put up offensive signs, abused doctors and nurses and even fought with them, he said.

The police has stopped the troublemakers from setting fire to paper -- a common practice in China when people wish to commemorate the dead -- and putting up signs in the hospital but said they had not witnessed any physical intimidation.

The hospital, which has been ordered to pay some compensation to the dead person's relatives, protested at being made to pay when the family of the dead person had refused an autopsy, said Zhang.

Zhang said the hospital was the victim of intimidation tactics and that authorities should prevent this from happening.

(Xinhua News Agency December 26, 2006)