An angry mob attacked the centre in Monrovia's densely populated West Point
township on Saturday evening. A senior health official said all of the patients had been moved to another
medical facility. But a reporter told the BBC that 17 had escaped while 10 others were taken
away by their families.
More than 400 people are known to have died from the virus in Liberia, out of
a total of 1,145 deaths recorded in West Africa by the World Health Organization
this year.
Assistant Health Minister Tolbert Nyenswah said protesters had been unhappy
that patients were being brought in from other parts of the capital. Other reports suggested the protesters had believed Ebola was a hoax and
wanted to force the quarantine centre to close. The attack at the Monrovia centre is seen as a major setback in the struggle
to halt the outbreak, says the BBC's Will Ross, reporting from Lagos. Health experts say that the key to ending the Ebola outbreak is to stop it
spreading in Liberia, where ignorance about the virus is high and many people
are reluctant to cooperate with medical staff.
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