An Asian civilian whose tongue was cut out in a brutal attack that left him with severe injuries to his head and upper body is one of six victims of violence still being treated at Bahrain's military hospital.

They include two students, one of whom has muscular dystrophy and was thrown out of his own wheelchair and beaten with it by anti-government factions during clashes at Bahrain University on March 13.

The pair were among 28 students who required treatment at BDF Hospital following the massive brawl.

A top doctor at the facility said some of the injuries treated during the height of violence over the past few weeks were 'horrific'.

'Before the declaration of the State of National Safety there had been a huge escalation in cases, but since then the number has dropped,' hospital director Dr Bahaa Fateha told our sister newspaper Gulf Daily News (GDN) yesterday.

'Before the declaration, people were coming in with serious injuries caused by weapons such as knives, swords, sticks and a lot from blocks of wood with nails hammered into the top.

'We have also noticed a lot of cases where people have been stabbed with screwdrivers.

'The injuries were horrific; something we have not been accustomed to.

'This is a military hospital so we are trained to treat trauma cases. I've seen the injuries before, but not in a situation like this.

'It's been different to a war situation because in a war, people suffer severe injuries from gunshots.

'But here, it seems like vengeance; people are being stabbed four and five times and that is something we haven't seen before.'

He went on to say that some of his patients looked like they had been 'hit by a train'.

'We've had many broken bones, cracked skulls, punctured lungs and other things we shouldn't really see,' he added. 'Some of these injuries look familiar to cases in which people have been hit by a train, but not by another human being.'

Staff at the BDF Hospital have largely remained silent until now, but the GDN was one of two newspapers given exclusive access to its wards yesterday.

Dr Fateha said the hospital witnessed one of its busiest days on March 13, when police were pulled off the streets after officers were attacked with knives and swords while trying to move protesters from their position outside the Bahrain Financial Harbour.

He said March 15, the day Bahrain declared a State of National Safety, saw another rush of patients who had been attacked.

The patient whose tongue was cut out was attacked on March 13 during a spate of attacks on Asians by anti-government factions.

Dr Fateha said the 23-year-old remained in a critical condition and was unlikely to fully recover from brain damage.

'He came to us with very serious injuries to the head and abdomen, a fractured skull and his tongue cut off,' said Dr Fateha, who asked for the patient to remain anonymous.

'Surgery was carried out immediately to a clot on his brain, but he remains in a very critical condition.

'We are hoping he survives, but even if he does he will probably have serious brain damage.'

Another man of Asian origin, who wished only to be identified as Mushtar, lay in an opposite bed as he described the terrifying moment his home was ransacked by an angry mob.

'I finished my job as a driver as normal and I went home to the place I stay in Manama,' he told the GDN. 'Hundreds of people then came to the building and broke down the doors.

'They came into the rooms and broke the TV and everything else.

'They caught the two people I lived with and started to beat them, but I managed to run away.

'When I was running though I fell on a piece of metal and it cut into my body.'

A nurse treating Mushtar revealed he had suffered a ruptured colon and would require treatment for several weeks before being discharged.

Also receiving treatment at the BDF Hospital are two police officers who suffered severe cuts and broken bones after being attacked by protesters.-TradeArabia News Service