Chandigarh: At least 30 people were arrested on Tuesday in a village near Haryana's Ambala town on charges of attacking healthcare employees, police said.

A day earlier a group of people of Chandpura village allegedly tried to disrupt the last rites of a woman who was suspected to have succumbed to COVID-19.

The villagers feared that the virus would spread in the area with her cremation. In retaliation, they pelted policemen and health workers with stones and bricks.

In the scuffle, a few policemen and the Deputy Superintendent of Police were injured.

Later the crowd was pacified with the assurance that there was risk of the virus spread, a police officer said.

The woman died at the Civil Hospital in Ambala Cantonment.

The suspects have been booked under the amended Epidemic Diseases Act.