Shot schoolgirl: visitors arrested

Oct 16 2012

A number of people have been arrested after turning up at a hospital falsely claiming to be related to Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani schoolgirl who was shot in the head by Taliban gunmen.

Dr Dave Rosser, medical director at Birmingham's Queen Elizabeth Hospital, said he did not believe there was a threat to her safety.

He said outside the hospital: "Clearly, it is a police issue but I understand that a number of people turned up claiming to be members of Malala's family, which we don't believe to be true, and have been arrested.

"We don't believe there is any threat to her personal security - we think it's probably people being over-curious."

He said they did not get inside the hospital, and added: "They didn't get very far."

Dr Rosser said the security operation was in the hands of the police and did not discuss any further details. He added that the hospital and West Midlands Police were "comfortable with the levels of security".

Malala, 14, was flown to Birmingham airport on Monday and transferred to the hospital, which has a decade's experience of treating British military casualties.

The teenager was shot on a bus in front of her friends last Tuesday in what Foreign Secretary William Hague described as a "barbaric attack".

She was saved by neurosurgeons in a Pakistani military hospital and has since been in intensive care.

But doctors decided she needed "prolonged care" to help her recover from the physical and psychological effects of the attack.