HYDERABAD: Four prisoners undergoing COVID-19 treatment have gone missing from the prison ward of the state-run Gandhi Hospital in Hyderabad early Thursday.

According to police, the four prisoners---two undertrials and two convicts-- from the city-based Cherlapally Central Prison, were admitted to the hospital over the past 15 days, after they tested positive for coronavirus. All the four are missing from the prison ward of the hospital.

They are suspected to be within the hospital premises.

A police official said that they bent the iron rods of washroom window and climbed down using bedsheets at around 2 am. Every person at the hospital's entry and exit point is captured by the CCTV camera and the four prisoners did not leave the building, the cop said.

The entire corridor of the prison ward, where currently 29 prisoners, including the four missing, are taking treatment has been cordoned off by locking the entry and exit points.

More than 1,000 coronavirus patients are currently undergoing treatment at the Gandhi Hospital in different wards.

A prison ward has been created in the Gandhi Hospital to lodge prisoners infected with COVID-19.