A school in Orissa has been closed down and all its students moved to a hermitage as fears that some of them might be possessed by evil spirits gathered force.
Reports said several girls at the Dolagobinda High School in a village in Balasore, 250 km from here, had crying fits that witnesses compared to cats and then fainted.
Witch doctors and priests were called in to "cure" the dozen odd girls, aged from six to 12.
It started July 26 when a Class 10 student Sasmita Mohapatra fainted during prayers. Eleven other girls followed suit.
"Since then the girls are behaving abnormally," said the school's headmistress Manjubala Panda.
She said special prayers were organised in the school five days after the incident but they did not help.
"The girls tremble with a tingling sensation. They also cry and act like cats and then faint. They get normal after a few hours," Panda told IANS.
With superstition and fear closing in on the village, the authorities closed the school with 75 students and moved the children to the Nigamananda Saraswat ashram. While a sage performed rituals to drive away spirits, the children were being made to recite Vedic mantras.
"These girls have psychological problems," said district official Bhaskar Sethy, adding that the administration had sent experts to probe the incident.
There have been similar incidents reported from other schools. "After some counselling, the girls have shown some improvement but we are not sure what is exactly wrong with them. We are organising rituals to get divine help," said a parent.