Human rights groups concerned over Bahrain crackdown
Rights groups say four people have died in custodyHuman rights groups are expressing growing concern about a security crackdown in Bahrain.
A report by the campaign group Physicians for Human Rights has called for an international investigation into the use of "excessive force".
It says at least 32 medics are among those arrested since protests began.
The government denied the reports, saying it was "false" to suggest that doctors were being indiscriminately arrested or targeted.
However, those who had been blocking care at medical facilities - which had been "overrun by political and sectarian activity" - were being investigated, a spokesperson said.
'Died in custody'Human rights workers speak of a climate of increasing fear in Bahrain.
Physicians for Human Rights has claimed that some doctors were taken from their homes by masked men in the middle of the night.
Among hundreds reported to have been detained are doctors and a prominent human rights activist. Others have lost their jobs for taking part in protests.
Rights groups say many of those arrested have been held incommunicado - their whereabouts unknown - and that four detainees have died in custody.
Physicians for Human Rights says it believes medics have been targeted for arrest because they have treated wounded protesters and seen evidence of abuses by security forces.
The International Committee of Red Cross has been requesting to visit detainees since March. It has had no answer.
Amid mounting concern, Amnesty International has urged Bahrain's allies to press for an end to what it calls a spiralling human rights crisis.
'Malicious propaganda'William Hague, the British Foreign Secretary, has called on the Bahraini authorities to act in accordance with the law.
He said the arrests of opposition figures, reports of deaths in custody, allegations of torture and the denial of medical treatment were extremely troubling.
However Maysoon Sabkar, a government spokesperson, said the accusations made by Physicians for Human Rights was "wholly false".
"What such organisations have so far failed to understand is that the services of some of Bahrain's main medical facilities, including Salmaniya Medical Complex, had been overrun by political and sectarian activity," he said.
"This extended beyond the spreading of malicious propaganda to the blocking of medical care, severely interrupting services and endangering life.
"This was totally unacceptable behaviour, by any standard. Those responsible are being investigated and will be held to account in the proper, legal manner," he said.
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