Some villagers have been scared at the appearance of health workers trying to combat Ebola
Guinea has sent a team to find missing health officials who were attacked two days ago while visiting a village to raise awareness about Ebola.
Unconfirmed reports suggest they may have been kidnapped or even killed.
The officials had fled Wamey village after their group was pelted with stones.
Last month, riots erupted in the same area following rumours that medics were contaminating people when they started spraying a market to disinfect it.
The missing people are thought to include journalists as well as local officials.
One journalist who escaped during the attack in the village said her colleagues may have been kidnapped because, while she was hiding, she heard the villagers looking for them. This has not been independently confirmed.
The BBC’s Makeme Bamba, in the Guinean capital Conakry, says that at the moment, the government delegation cannot reach the village by road because the main bridge leading to it has been destroyed.
Health organisations are exploring the possible use of experimental drugs to combat the latest outbreak in West Africa
Meanwhile, the team is negotiating with local elders to try to gain access, the BBC says.
There have been many reports of people in the region saying they do not believe Ebola exists, or refusing to cooperate with health authorities, fearing that a diagnosis means certain death.
Earlier on Thursday a French aid worker from the medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) reportedly contracted the Ebola virus in Liberia.
The woman is being repatriated to Paris under maximum security.
The BBC takes a look at the scale of the challenge the Ebola outbreak presents to modern medicine
The current outbreak is the deadliest since Ebola was discovered in 1976
Cumulative deaths – up to 13 September
Figures are occasionally revised down as suspect or probable cases are found to be unrelated to Ebola
Ebola: Mapping the outbreak
How bad can it get?
‘Biological war’: A week on the Ebola frontline
Have you been affected by the Ebola outbreak? You can send us your experiences by emailing [email protected]