Miscommunication and the changing attitudes of the family of a fatally stabbed doctor were the causes of a conflict between a hospital's medical staff, who sided with the family, and its leaders over how to deal with the victim's body, hospital officials said.

Wang Yunjie, a chief physician in the hospital's otolaryngological department, was stabbed to death on Friday, allegedly by an unhappy patient of the department.

Hundreds of medical workers from the First People's Hospital of Wenling in Zhejiang province and the victim's family members besieged the hospital's morgue until Sunday night, after they learned hospital officials insisted on relocating Wang's body without the agreement of his family.