137 sent to hospitals during week-long protest: bureau

Taipei, March 24 (CNA) A total of 137 people, including protesters, media workers and police officers, have been injured and sent to hospitals during an ongoing week-long student protest in Taipei, the city's health bureau said Monday.

As of 7 a.m. Monday, 24 of the 137 injured remained hospitalized, the bureau said.

The bureau also announced that it has added 10 more hospitals to the list of medical care facilities on standby, from the original seven designated on March 18, on fears of escalating tensions.

Serious clashes occurred in the early hours of Monday morning before police managed to remove protesters from inside the Executive Yuan compound just before dawn using high-pressure water cannons.

Hundreds of protesters had stormed into the compound at around 7:30 p.m. Sunday night.

Many of them had originally been part of the occupation of the Legislative Yuan, some 200 meters away, which began March 18.

National Taiwan University Hospital, the closest hospital to where the clashes took place and one of the seven originally designated hospitals, said that most of the cases it handled have been for minor injuries.

It said that it had treated 57 patients overnight as of 9:30 a.m., mostly for impact injuries and scratches, and did not see any fatalities, rebutting rumors that a student had died in the protests.

(By Lung Jui-yun, Chen Ching-fang and James Lee)ENDITEM/ls

(Click here for the latest on the ongoing protest and developments since the Legislature occupation starting March 18.)