COLOMBO, Sri Lanka, February 07, SPA -- Hundreds of sick and woundedpeople are stranded in a makeshift hospital in war-wrackednorthern Sri Lanka, the Red Cross said Saturday as it urgedthe government and Tamil Tiger rebels to let the patientsout of the conflict zone. The makeshift hospital in Puttumatalan village is the onlymedical facility available in the region after the warzone's last hospital in Puthukkudiyiruppu was forced shutafter being shelled for days in attacks the Red Cross saidleft at least 12 people dead and 30 wounded. International Committee of the Red Cross spokeswomanSarasi Wijeratne said there are currently some 400 people,most of them lying on the floor in an overcrowded communitycenter and in school buildings turned into makeshift wards,waiting to be taken to better hospitals ingovernment-controlled territory. The patients are among some 250,000 people trapped insiderapidly shrinking rebel territory near the island'snortheastern coast as government troops come closer tocrushing the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, Associated Press reported. --SPA www.spa.gov.sa/633292