With the sharp rise in the number of fatalities and injuries from Monday’s protest, demand for blood has been rising alarmingly in hospitals treating injured protesters.

According to the Central Blood Transfusion Service, also known as blood bank, over 200 pints of blood were supplied to the National Trauma Centre and Bir Hospital until Monday evening after scores of injured protesters were rushed to the hospital.

“Our phone has been ringing continuously for blood,” said Sanjeev Kumar Yadav, senior technical officer at the Central Blood Transfusion Service. “Hospitals treating the injured people have been contacting us for blood.”

Officials say that they have collected 1,200 pints of blood on Monday and people are queuing up for donation voluntarily.

“It seems that demand for blood will rise further,” said Yadav. “We have deployed 20 officials for blood collection.”