An armed man on Wednesday night took four patients hostage at a hospital in Suri, West Bengal, strapping bombs to the bodies of three and holding a pistol to the head of another.

He wanted to speak to the Birbhum district Superintendent of Police, Akhil Kumar Roy, and a local Trinamol Congress leader.

Roy has already reached the hospital and is negotiating with him.

The man entered the male paying ward at 2015 IST and set off a bomb which, however, did not cause much damage.

He then took six persons hostage, including a woman, but later freed her and another man.

He also wanted to forcibly take away one of his hostages, Haradhan Mandal, on whom he was holding the gun, but could not do so.