Doctors, nurses and patients had to run for their lives after bulldozers moved in unexpectedly to demolish part of a hospital in central China in a local government row.

Six bodies being processed at an adjoining morgue at the hospital in Zhengzhou city, Henan province, were buried under rubble.

Hospital officials accused the local government of ordering demolition work after failing to get the hospital to agree to it for a road expansion project, said Xinhua News Agency.

But the Huiji District Government Information Office said they had asked the hospital in vain to demolish the CT room and morgue itself.

They denied claims that there were people inside the buildings when bulldozers started work and said there had been no casualties.

The No 4 Hospital of Zhengzhou University said the unexpected demolition work on Thursday buried six bodies stored in the morgue, caused nearly 20 million yuan worth of damage to medical equipment and injured several hospital staff, according to Xinhua.

"Burying the remains of patients is enormously disrespectful to the dead," the hospital's deputy propaganda chief, Zhang Yuan, said. "I never imagined anything like this would ever happen."