Tuesday, April 17, 2012

A curious case of Mass Hysteria in Malaysia

More than 30 secondary school girls were struck Monday by an unexplained hysteria for almost four hours during a routine morning assembly in a Malaysian school, the Sun reported Tuesday.

Some 1,100 students, both boys and girls, at Puchong Perdana National School in the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur had gathered in the school field for a weekly Monday assembly at 7.30 a.m. when suddenly a 15-year-old girl started screaming, then collapsed.

This led to a chain reaction.

The rest of the students ran to the their class rooms in panic when at least 30 girls began acting violently, throwing objects and screaming.

The school headmaster, Aris Ahmad, teachers and state education department officers took four hours to calm down the affected girls.

No one was injured in the incident.

State education officer Mohamed Ghazali Hamzah, whom according to the Sun had experienced similar incidents many times before, said the case is ''more psychological than supernatural.''

Most of the affected girls were believed to be suffering from stress due to domestic problems and were due to sit for an important examination.

Aris said the school would be closed for a short period ''to allow the situation to settle down.''

Both the affected and unaffected students are being given counseling.

One of the victims, Nor Hasni Hassan, 16, told the Sun, ''I only remember staggering for a distance after hearing the screams of my schoolmates before collapsing.''

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