Health workers were forced to evacuate Ebola patients from Mongbwalu General Hospital in northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) after gun-wielding young men stormed the facility.

Amid gunfire, the hospital staff hurriedly tried to evacuate patients as the attackers demanded two bodies of their kin, Richard Lokudu, the hospital’s medical director, told The Associated Press.

It was not immediately clear whether there were any casualties in the Sunday attack.

“Mongbwalu General Hospital is on general alert,” he added, without providing further details.

Sunday’s incident was the third in a week in Ituri province, the epicentre of the latest Ebola outbreakcaused by Bundibugyo virus disease (BVD), for which there is no treatment or vaccine.

Last Thursday, a part of Rwampara General Hospital, where Ebola patients are cared for, was torched by family and friends of a footballer who died from the disease after health officials prevented them from forcibly removing the body.

On Friday, the Ituri provincial government banned wakes and the transport of deceased Ebola victims in non-medical vehicles to contain the spread of the disease.

Some residents of Mongbwalu, on Saturday, razed a tent set up for suspected and confirmed Ebola cases by the humanitarian organisation Doctors Without Borders.

Mr Lokudu said 18 people with suspected Ebola cases left the facility and are unaccounted for.

The Congolese government said on Sunday that 904 suspected Ebola cases had been recorded, with 119 deaths.

The body of a deceased Ebola patient remains infectious, and the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends “safe and dignified burials” to curb transmission.

Burials organised in unsafe manners have been identified as the leading cause of transmission.

The global health body also elevated the risk of the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola to “very high” nationally in DR Congo and high regionally.