A man from Maidstone has been arrested after a crowd of alleged Covid-deniers tried to drag an elderly relative out of a hospital's critical care ward.

The 45-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of causing a public nuisance and is still in custody.

Police say he was arrested yesterday afternoon after people, some of whom were not wearing face masks, gained access to the ward at East Surrey Hospital at Redhill to visit a family member.

Surrey police say the group was abusive to hospital staff and refused to leave when asked to.

The incident is alleged to have happened on Thursday last week . Police issued an appeal to the public to track down the crowd after they were told on Saturday that videos of the incident were circulating on social media.

Officers had visited the hospital and issued fines to two people for breaching Covid restrictions. They also issued a breach of the peace warning before the group left the building.

A second man was also arrested yesterday on suspicion of assisting an offender and is also in custody.

East Surrey Detective Chief Inspector Kimball Edey said: "The appeal generated hundreds of calls from members of the public with information as to his whereabouts and we would like to thank both them and the media for their help in tracking him down.

"I would also like to thank our colleagues at Kent Police who assisted with the arrests.

"The man will be interviewed and further updates will be issued in due course."

Videos posted online by a YouTube account appear to show an ICU doctor objecting to the group apparently removing the oxygen from an elderly patient.

The doctor pleads: “My main concern is his safety and at the moment you are making him unsafe. You have taken his oxygen off, he is going to die if we don’t put it back on.”

The patient appears to suggest he wants to leave, arguing with doctors that he won’t die if his oxygen is taken off.

“If you go home, you will die,” the doctor says, later telling the group the patient will “last about half an hour” if he leaves hospital.

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