Mangaluru : The closure of Karnataka-Kerala State border at 21 places has now taken a controversial turn after an ambulance from Kerala was denied entry into Mangaluru resulting in the death of an ailing woman, later in a hospital in Kasaragod (Kerala) on Saturday.

The ambulance was not allowed to enter Mangaluru at Talapady check post, about 17 km away from Mangaluru city, on Kasaragod-Mangaluru national highway No. 66 on Saturday evening.

It was shifting a 70-year-old woman from Kunjathur in Kerala to a hospital in Mangaluru as she needed medical help urgently.

Kunjathur in Kerala is closer to Mangaluru in Karnataka than Kasaragod.

The woman, Pathuni, a native of B C Road had been to her grand daughter’s house in a village near Kunjathur in Kerala, the ambulance driver Aslam Kunjathur told.

“I reached Talapady check post at 6 p.m. where I was denied entry. Then I went to Kedambady to enter Karnataka where the natives blocked the movement. I dropped the woman back to her granddaughter’s house around 7.30 p.m.” he said.

Sources said that the woman was later taken to a hospital in Kasaragod where she died.

Dakshina Kannada district administration has sealed the Karnataka-Kerala borders to prevent the spread of COVID-19 cases. In many places soil has been dumped across the road to prevent the movement of vehicles.

The movement of trucks and lorries carrying essential commodities between Karala and Karnataka are allowed only through Talapady check post on NH 66.