‘Haunted?’: Students cry, scream, bang heads as mass hysteria grips school in Uttarakhand – Watch Video

In a bizarre incident of mass hysteria, students of a government school were seen shouting, screaming, crying and banging their heads for no reason. The school authorities were left baffled with many officials claiming that the school was haunted.

The incident happened at a government school in Raikhili village in the Bageshwar district of Uttarakhand. Parents, as well as teachers, were left confused as the students, the majority of them girls were seen crying and shouting.

A number of students, mostly girls, were seen screaming, rolling on the ground and behaving “abnormally” in a fit of hysteria. News 18 reported Vimla Devi, head teacher of the junior high school, saying that the ‘abnormal’ behaviour among a few girl students and a male student was first reported on Tuesday.

“They were crying, shouting, shivering, and even trying to bang heads for no reason. We called parents, they summoned a local priest and this is how the situation came under control,” the head teacher said, according to the report. The unusual behaviour was noticed among the students on Thursday again when a team of administration and doctors visited the school.

Watch the video here:

“Parents insisted that we perform pooja inside the school campus. They believe school is doomed. We would do anything, be it consulting doctors or taking help of faith healers so that everything becomes normal,” Vimla Devi said. It is not clear what made the students behave in a strange manner.

However, physiatrists feel that it seems to be a case of ‘mass hysteria’.

What is mass hysteria?

Mass hysteria refers to an outbreak of unusual and uncharacteristic behaviours, thoughts and feelings or health symptoms shared among a group of people. Experts largely consider mass hysteria a type of conversion disorder or mental health condition that involves physical symptoms prompted by emotional or mental tension.