This is the horrifying moment when a heavily armed gang holding hostages at a hospital hold a gun to a terrified nurse’s head and threaten to kill her.

The seven gunmen had burst into the hospital in Ecuador on 27th November to finish off rival gang member Angel Leonidas Menendez, 17 – nicknamed Cara Sucia, or Dirty Face – who had been shot days earlier.

As the gang rampaged through Dr Napoleon Davila Cordova General Hospital in Chone, they took five hostages, including the nurse seen in chilling video footage.

As they tried to escape from a side door, members of the gang – armed with assault rifles and pistols – held a handgun to her head.

But seeing the way blocked by police, they shuffled backwards back into the clinic with the nurse screaming for her life.

A second video shows police leading out seven arrested gang members showing their faces to a video camera.

Local media said the gunmen made the sick leave the facility, forcing staff to carry out some of the patients in their arms.

The tense stand-off came to a head when police cordoned off the area and entered the hospital.

They managed to neutralise the gunmen and handcuff them on the ground without a single shot being fired.

The National Police of Ecuador said in a statement that the officers who entered the building managed to free five hostages.

They also seized “two rifles, a sub-machine gun, three shotguns, a revolver, and two bulletproof vests” from the crooks.

Both Interior Minister Juan Zapata and President Guillermo Lasso praised the force’s “remarkable work”.

Parts of Ecuador remain under a state of emergency following a growing wave of violence across the country.

Ten were killed in a riot at a prison in Quito on 18th November after officials decided to transfer three gangsters to a high-security facility