A man goes to buy medicine. Collapses outside the chemist shop. Dies. No one comes to help him. Authorities are called in. They come but after six hours.

In a shocking incident, the body of a man who died outside a chemist shop in Bhagalpur was left there for six hours.

As per the chemist, the man had come to buy a pump for asthma. After taking his medicine, he collapsed right outside the store.

Fearing the Covid-19, no one came to help him. It is not known if the man died immediately or sometime later.

"Government seems helpless. The authorities did not take action. The body kept lying here for four-five hours. Ambulances came and went back. Cops came and went back. They took the body away after four-five hours. This attitude is ridiculous," Mohammed Mushtaq Khan

Shopkeepers claimed they pleaded the police and the people manning the Covid care helpline but got no help.

"We call the SP, DM, Bhagalpur Police station as well as Covid-19 helpline. But there was no response," a shopkeeper told India Today TV.

It took six hours for the municipal corporation to send sanitation workers wearing PPE kits to take away the body. This too after the deputy mayor intervened.

Bhagalpur is the second most worst-affected district of Bihar, which has registered a surge of Covid-19 cases in the last few days. While the total number of Covid-19 cases in Bihar has surpassed the 20,000-mark, Bhagalpur alone has over 1,000 cases of the novel coronavirus.