Eyes missing from bodies at Indian state hospitals

A north Indian state is investigating how eyes have gone missing from two bodies at state hospitals.

Uttar Pradesh official Achche Lal says organ traffickers are suspected and new autopsies are planned.

The parents of a 16-year-old say his left eye was missing on Sunday, though both eyes were intact when he died from a road accident in Lucknow. The boy's father, Sohan Lal, said doctors told him "the eye might have fallen out."

Relatives of a rickshaw puller who died on Monday from asthma filed a police complaint after finding his body with no eyes. A state hospital worker and two paramedics were arrested.

Ophthalmologist N.B. Singh says government waiting lists for eye transplants are up to six years long, while private hospitals charge at least $500 (about R4000).